Thursday, February 24, 2005
What happens when the power goes out...
Yesterday was one of the dullest, most miserable days, I have experienced in a long, long time. It started well, but as soon as I arrived at work, we were advised that the power was out. "No problem" I thought, I have a laptop and can keep working. Unfortunately, however, the document I needed resided on the server that was down, so that wasn't an option.
We waited most of the morning for an insulator to arrive from the nearest city (over 1 hour away) and most of that time was spent reviewing the current site works in the rain, and knee deep in mud. Trudging endlessly around the mining site feeling cold and wet, while not actually being able to do anything productive was a stifling feeling.
To make matters worse, being out in the rain, I was away from my phone, and hence didn't send any messages to my gorgeous girl. I think she felt neglected, and now I feel bad about it. It's frustrating, because I've been trying my hardest to keep in contact.
Being in Mongolia was a nightmare, because not only would my mobile not work, but I didn't have any decent internet connectivity, which meant that I was essentially isolated from everybody, except for the Mongolians with whom I was locking horns.
Turkey has been better, and I've learnt from my last trip here, that calling Jodie in the Turkish evenings is not the easiest way to stay in contact, because it's very late in Australia, and she does actually need some sleep. Instead I try to call her in the mornings, on my way to work. It's about midday in Australia when I'm leaving for work. I've only managed to get through once though, which has been disappointing.
While the Turkish telephone infrastructure is herculean compared to it's Mongolian counterpart, international connections are still a bit of a hit and miss affair. Compounded with this, is that Jodie is at work, so it can be a bit of a hit and miss affair to get in touch with her, even if my call gets through. Unfortunately she takes this lack of contact as a sign that I'm not thinking of her, or that I'm avoiding her or something.
I find it difficult to balance all of the demands on my time, and it's something that I need to continue to work on. It's more important now than it has ever been in my life, because my actions have the power to profoundly affect some one I care so deeply about. The fact is, that my mood and feelings springs directly from hers. If she is feeling sad, or down, then I also feel that way. Not necessarily because I've shared the feeling or the event that has triggered her feelings, but because I feel that I've failed in someway from protecting her from feeling bad, or worse still, that my actions may have caused it.
Fortunately she is generally a happy soul, so I'm blessed with being able to magnify her feelings of happiness and joy, but still, the sadder days are the ones that seem to affect me more. Perhaps I should concentrate on enjoying the happy times that we share.
The book that I've just finished reading tells the reader that if you "expect" good things, then good things will come. It's not so much about positive thinking and using your mind, but more that if you aim for good things, then you naturally start doing things, and acting in ways that help those good things to happen. It talks about adjusting your frame of reference, or the way that you view something in order to frame the subject in a positive way.
An example is how you view your weigh. Often we think to ourselves "I'm too fat", or "I'm overweight" or "I wish I was thinner", but what we should probably be thinking is how we can do something about it. We should say "What can I do to loose weight?" or "Exercising more will help me reduce my weight"
Suddenly we've changed the context of the idea from one of a statement that is negative and makes us feel bad, to a statement that is positive and calling for change, or at the least, a question to invigorate our brains.
The book incidentally is Retire Rich, Retire Young, by Robert Kiyosaki, and he didn't quite frame the premise in the same way that I did above. I though long and hard about what Kiyosaki was trying to say in this book. Looking between the self-indulgent memory trip and advertising speil, Kiyosaki has unwittingly managed to bury a very valuable message by using a range of poor examples bizarre conclusions.
Kiyosaki has a unique way of viewing the world, and many of the words he uses makes sense to him, but I find a range of his examples and word choices uncomfortable. Kiyosaki goes on about changing your context and using "fast words". His examples of fast words are not something that I would call fast, but perhaps would to my mind be called positive or smart. The message about changing your context or your viewpoint is valuable, but the examples that he uses are simplistic and not well thought out, IMHO.
The never-ending advertising detracts from an otherwise very powerful message. This is in fact the second time that I've read this book, and the first reading was an extremely positive experience for me. This time around, however, the same powerful feelings were absent. Perhaps I've fallen out of the Rich Dad mania mind set, and decided upon my own route of self-development. I'm not really sure.
I still think that this book is a good read, and what underlies Kiyosaki's commentry can be applied to many facets of life, which is why I used the example above.
In my thoughts today has been my relationship with Jodie, and how much I want us to be happy together. It occured to me that instead of me simply wishing that Jodie were happy and content, that instead, I should frame the premise as "what can I do to expand the love and happiness between us?" I'm not sure that I have all the answers to that (in fact, I hope that I don't, because the discovery of the answers is one of the things that propels a relationship), but part of my mind is certainly focussed on it. I have some ideas of things that I have the power to change, and I will try to put these into action.
As mentioned in a book (who's title escapes me at the moment) the idea of building an emotional bank account is an important element to a relationship. To be loved and trusted, one must ensure that he demonstrates that he/she can be trusted, and is worthy of love. One thing that the book failed to mention is that it is possible for others to make withdrawals from your emotional bank account. If you've been burned by love before, then you should be able to appreciate how your past experiences can affect your current feelings. What is does highlight, however, (and one point that I found particularly poignant) was that it's important to continue making deposits into this emotional bank account, even after the trust and love has formed.
You need to continue to show your lover that he/she is special to you. Taking your partner for granted begins to make withdrawals from the emotional bank account, until all of the feelings are spent.
Thinking in monetary terms, it is important to deposit more into your bank account than you withdraw, to ensure your ongoing prosperity. Similarly, it is important to deposit more into your emotional bank account to ensure ongoing happiness, trust and love in your relationship. I have a goal to be prosperous both financially, and in my relationship with Jodie.
To continue on from where I started this entry, today has been a much more successful day. I managed to fix a problem in a spreadsheet I'm working on, and also managed to get an instrument working, despite the correct wiring diagram being absent from the manual. Even the weather has improved, from the deep, thick fog of this morning, to a very pleasant and sunny day.
My mood has also improved since I received a message from the love of my life, informing me that she was well, despite us having had little contact in the last few days. I truly hope that I manage to get in contact with her tomorrow morning. Her voice is always invigorating to my soul.
Random Link for the day
10 Steps for Boosting Creativity
We waited most of the morning for an insulator to arrive from the nearest city (over 1 hour away) and most of that time was spent reviewing the current site works in the rain, and knee deep in mud. Trudging endlessly around the mining site feeling cold and wet, while not actually being able to do anything productive was a stifling feeling.
To make matters worse, being out in the rain, I was away from my phone, and hence didn't send any messages to my gorgeous girl. I think she felt neglected, and now I feel bad about it. It's frustrating, because I've been trying my hardest to keep in contact.
Being in Mongolia was a nightmare, because not only would my mobile not work, but I didn't have any decent internet connectivity, which meant that I was essentially isolated from everybody, except for the Mongolians with whom I was locking horns.
Turkey has been better, and I've learnt from my last trip here, that calling Jodie in the Turkish evenings is not the easiest way to stay in contact, because it's very late in Australia, and she does actually need some sleep. Instead I try to call her in the mornings, on my way to work. It's about midday in Australia when I'm leaving for work. I've only managed to get through once though, which has been disappointing.
While the Turkish telephone infrastructure is herculean compared to it's Mongolian counterpart, international connections are still a bit of a hit and miss affair. Compounded with this, is that Jodie is at work, so it can be a bit of a hit and miss affair to get in touch with her, even if my call gets through. Unfortunately she takes this lack of contact as a sign that I'm not thinking of her, or that I'm avoiding her or something.
I find it difficult to balance all of the demands on my time, and it's something that I need to continue to work on. It's more important now than it has ever been in my life, because my actions have the power to profoundly affect some one I care so deeply about. The fact is, that my mood and feelings springs directly from hers. If she is feeling sad, or down, then I also feel that way. Not necessarily because I've shared the feeling or the event that has triggered her feelings, but because I feel that I've failed in someway from protecting her from feeling bad, or worse still, that my actions may have caused it.
Fortunately she is generally a happy soul, so I'm blessed with being able to magnify her feelings of happiness and joy, but still, the sadder days are the ones that seem to affect me more. Perhaps I should concentrate on enjoying the happy times that we share.
The book that I've just finished reading tells the reader that if you "expect" good things, then good things will come. It's not so much about positive thinking and using your mind, but more that if you aim for good things, then you naturally start doing things, and acting in ways that help those good things to happen. It talks about adjusting your frame of reference, or the way that you view something in order to frame the subject in a positive way.
An example is how you view your weigh. Often we think to ourselves "I'm too fat", or "I'm overweight" or "I wish I was thinner", but what we should probably be thinking is how we can do something about it. We should say "What can I do to loose weight?" or "Exercising more will help me reduce my weight"
Suddenly we've changed the context of the idea from one of a statement that is negative and makes us feel bad, to a statement that is positive and calling for change, or at the least, a question to invigorate our brains.
The book incidentally is Retire Rich, Retire Young, by Robert Kiyosaki, and he didn't quite frame the premise in the same way that I did above. I though long and hard about what Kiyosaki was trying to say in this book. Looking between the self-indulgent memory trip and advertising speil, Kiyosaki has unwittingly managed to bury a very valuable message by using a range of poor examples bizarre conclusions.
Kiyosaki has a unique way of viewing the world, and many of the words he uses makes sense to him, but I find a range of his examples and word choices uncomfortable. Kiyosaki goes on about changing your context and using "fast words". His examples of fast words are not something that I would call fast, but perhaps would to my mind be called positive or smart. The message about changing your context or your viewpoint is valuable, but the examples that he uses are simplistic and not well thought out, IMHO.
The never-ending advertising detracts from an otherwise very powerful message. This is in fact the second time that I've read this book, and the first reading was an extremely positive experience for me. This time around, however, the same powerful feelings were absent. Perhaps I've fallen out of the Rich Dad mania mind set, and decided upon my own route of self-development. I'm not really sure.
I still think that this book is a good read, and what underlies Kiyosaki's commentry can be applied to many facets of life, which is why I used the example above.
In my thoughts today has been my relationship with Jodie, and how much I want us to be happy together. It occured to me that instead of me simply wishing that Jodie were happy and content, that instead, I should frame the premise as "what can I do to expand the love and happiness between us?" I'm not sure that I have all the answers to that (in fact, I hope that I don't, because the discovery of the answers is one of the things that propels a relationship), but part of my mind is certainly focussed on it. I have some ideas of things that I have the power to change, and I will try to put these into action.
As mentioned in a book (who's title escapes me at the moment) the idea of building an emotional bank account is an important element to a relationship. To be loved and trusted, one must ensure that he demonstrates that he/she can be trusted, and is worthy of love. One thing that the book failed to mention is that it is possible for others to make withdrawals from your emotional bank account. If you've been burned by love before, then you should be able to appreciate how your past experiences can affect your current feelings. What is does highlight, however, (and one point that I found particularly poignant) was that it's important to continue making deposits into this emotional bank account, even after the trust and love has formed.
You need to continue to show your lover that he/she is special to you. Taking your partner for granted begins to make withdrawals from the emotional bank account, until all of the feelings are spent.
Thinking in monetary terms, it is important to deposit more into your bank account than you withdraw, to ensure your ongoing prosperity. Similarly, it is important to deposit more into your emotional bank account to ensure ongoing happiness, trust and love in your relationship. I have a goal to be prosperous both financially, and in my relationship with Jodie.
To continue on from where I started this entry, today has been a much more successful day. I managed to fix a problem in a spreadsheet I'm working on, and also managed to get an instrument working, despite the correct wiring diagram being absent from the manual. Even the weather has improved, from the deep, thick fog of this morning, to a very pleasant and sunny day.
My mood has also improved since I received a message from the love of my life, informing me that she was well, despite us having had little contact in the last few days. I truly hope that I manage to get in contact with her tomorrow morning. Her voice is always invigorating to my soul.
Random Link for the day
10 Steps for Boosting Creativity
# posted by The Puppeteer : 10:48 pm
