I haven’t mentioned that I got a new job last Friday – huzzah! I’ll be doing remote editing work for the Windows group at Microsoft, which is pretty similar to what I did before. I’m delighted to be working from home; although I was convinced that with God’s help I could manage an office nine-to-five, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to it – or to the appropriate-clothes-buying ordeal (ugh) that would ensue.
So since I got that news I’ve tried something brand-new to me: relaxing. I no longer have a tense, panicky feeling that I should be spending every second of every day looking for a job. Instead, I sat by the Charles last Saturday, looking through the haze that colored all the Boston buildings in soft pastels and watching the pinks turn to periwinkle as the sun set. I spent Sunday afternoon out at the Old North Bridge, then wandered through the Back Bay and Harvard Square early in the week. I found an awesome recipe for a Middle Eastern plateful of deliciousness called mujadara. Très bien.
I also spent more hours than I want to admit reading Harvard Business Review weblogs one night. I read easily more than two dozen posts, many of them by one of my new favorite writers: Peter Bregman. Just a few of his awesome posts:
To Get More Done, Slow Down: How rest periods make people much more productive
What to Do When You’re Out of Control: About being – gasp! – helpful instead of making stressful situations more difficult
Stop Worrying About Your Weaknesses: Because they’re probably your strengths
Why You Need to Fail: Those who never fail don’t challenge themselves enough to learn
The Interview Question You Should Always Ask: Why what you do in your spare time matters
A New Rule for the Workplace: Changing expectations to meet reality reduces negative emotions
I Want You to Apologize: How to defuse tense situations by showing, like, humility
And there are soooo many more – I don’t know what Mr. Bregman’s background is, but I love that he applies gospel principles to real-world situations.
There are a few others too – most notably How to Write a Resume That Doesn’t Annoy People and Ace the Interview by David Silverman and a 5 Leadership Essentials ideacast that explores surprisingly warm-fuzzy leadership values by Dave Ulrich.
Whence cometh this interest in business, you ask? Note that the articles I enjoy are generally about making people and situations better, not about manipulating Excel worksheets. They tend to illustrate gospel principles. And the gospel is something I’m very interested in, since it has miraculously made my life actually enjoyable instead of just endurable. Huzzah, again.