Category Archives: Energy

Living within our means

April 30, 2015 7:04 AM , Leave a Comment ,

I’ve been doing a lot with my personal finances in the last few months.  Included in this was the purchase of a new car.  Something that I undeniably need living in Houston but yet some would argue I could have gotten something more pedestrian, less flashy, and more modest.  Some have asked if it is something that I can afford.

To which the answer is yes.  This was something that I’ve been thinking about for over a year and the numbers do make sense.  Now, I could have gotten something more modest, true but the cost difference really wasn’t going to be that great and I do feel that I got quite a bit for my money.  So I still feel that this was a good bargain for me.

Nevertheless these are valid concerns.  In my lifetime I’ve seen how quickly people can get in trouble with easy credit and overspending.  When I was in school the message boards were crammed with credit card applications for students to fill out and even though most students either didn’t work or worked part-time jobs they got ridiculously high credit lines.  Of course within a month or two these kids got into some real financial problems that took years to clear up.

But that’s just symptomatic of our culture or even our civilization as a whole.  We like to push the limits to the extreme and even break the limits till we get into trouble with not just money but resources, living space, and population size.

Take California for example.  The golden state with promises of endless farmlands carved out of the desert, green suburbs without end, and abundant, cheap water hauled from hundreds of miles away. What happens when the waters fail to come year after year?  The answer is the tragedy that’s slowly unfolding right now and affects not just millions of Californians but millions of people across the country and the world that depend on the produce grown there.

What will happen to that population?  They won’t just dry up and blow away.  We’ll soon see them in our neighborhoods looking for work and sharing our resources.  Problems that might have been sidestepped if we had not insisted on trying to squeeze every last resource out of a desert that wasn’t ready to take so many people in the first place.

California will heal but it will take a long time.  My question is when it heals and the rain cycle is restored will we go back and make the same mistakes again or will we learn and not try to live past the capacity of the land?

Posted in: consumerism, current events, economy, energy, environment, future, life in general, technology, thought, weather

Leadership

January 2, 2015 7:11 AM , Leave a Comment ,

“Experts in war depend specially on opportunity and expediency.  They do not place the burden of accomplishment specially on their men” – Ch’en Hao

“Now the method of employing men is to use the avaricious and the stupid, the wise and the brave, and I give responsibility to each in situations that suit him.  Do not charge people to do what they cannot do.  Select them and give them responsibilities commensurate with their abilities.” – Chang Yu

So why all the philosophical quotes?  Well I want to talk about an aspect of leadership that is seldom discussed.  What happens when a project goes wrong and the blame starts flying left and right.

In this case (and no I won’t name names) an acquaintance that works at a large company told me about a project she was involved in and how her project leader mismanaged the whole operation from start to finish.  When things started really going bad and the upper management began to take notice the manager started assigning blame left and right but of course never accepted any for himself.

In this case my friend described the project and all the challenges involved, all the tasks that needed to be done and some of the other people involved and it became fairly clear that the project manager had mishandled things primarily by not assigning people the jobs for which they were best suited for.  Senior personnel were given research jobs fit for starting staff and junior staffers were assigned tasks for which they had no training for.

The second error that the project manager committed was not making himself available for consultation and expecting the situation to resolve itself favorably.  When red flags started popping up and things were not going as the schedule demanded the manager failed to heed the warnings and take preventative measures.  He wanted everyone to stick to the original plan.

The last error and really something classless to do was to place the blame on the subordinates and not acknowledge his part in the failure.  By the way that my friend described the events it really sounded as if the project manager really believed that he was blameless.  Luckily the upper management took notice of the chain of events and took appropriate measures but the damage was already done and the project was set back several months and cost the company a lot of money and prestige with their client.

A situation that could have been easily avoided if the project manager had been more conscientious about his management of the project, had been more flexible in his approach but most of all if he had taken an active rather than a passive role in the development of the project.

 

 

Posted in: business, energy, motivation, plans, relationships

ebb and flow

July 30, 2014 7:11 AM , Leave a Comment ,

3:43 AM

I don’t want to do this.  I just want to skip today and sleep late.  Sit up in bed.  What will it hurt to skip a couple of days.

Sigh

I get up and start changing into my running gear

 

6:57 PM

I finished a chapter last week and I have no clue as to where to take the story now.

Sit and stare, sit and stare.  Nothing comes to mind.

Pace the room, read a magazine, look at a website.  Still nothing.  I start typing something.  anything.  Hope that a story will resolve itself from the effort.

 

9:01 AM

A pile of emails.  Requests, inquiries, return emails, phone messages.  So much to do.  Where to start?  How to start?  Where will I get the enthusiasm to tackle it all?  Start, one email at a time.

 

Energy is like that.  Some days you spring out of bed, fresh as a daisy.  Other days not so much.  When you’re young you have that energy to spare and you can disregard those low energy days.  As you age it gets more difficult.  Exercise and a good diet can help mitigate that to an extent but you also have to admit that sometimes it’s overwhelming.

But the thing is that you can’t give in to the lethargy.  Nothing good comes out of that.  You slip on one day and then another and soon you’ve got a bad habit going.  So you soldier on as best as possible.  If you’ve built up a routine over the years this will help you carry on during these spells of low energy.  Force of habit is a good motivator.  But what will get you across is just a sheer stubborn will not to give in.

You have to stand up straight and continue on regardless of how low on energy you feel.  No dramatic declarations of intent, no promises of rest as a reward at the end.  Just a determination to get things done.

Posted in: energy, exercise, goals, health, motivation

The doldrums

February 18, 2014 6:45 AM , 2 Comments ,

Despite trying to keep myself going at full speed all the time (or perhaps because of it) sometimes I get into periods of time where my energy is at a low ebb.

Work doesn’t appeal to me, neither does exercise, writing, not even brainless activities like web surfing.  I feel just drained of energy.  In Spanish I would say that I have no “animo” related to animation.  To be clear, it’s not a depression but a lack of will to do anything.

These type of days can play havoc with the rest of my week.  Specially on days when I have more than enough to do already.  I do what I can but without any real enthusiasm.  I feel overwhelmed as things get done hardheartedly or don’t get done at all.

I recognized these patterns years ago but never knew what to do about them.  I shrugged my shoulders and figured that this was the way that things were.  Falling behind schedule was acceptable to me.

But no longer.

I can’t allow errant fluctuations in my energy dictate my life for me.  So what to do?

Well firstly I recognize these periods of listlessness when they occur.  I don’t just hope that they will go away but address them.

Next, get onto my scheduled activities and force myself to go through them.  We all have things that need doing and need to be done well.  Focus, focus, focus.  Make an extra special effort to get things done right.

Lastly, economize my energy.  I have things that need doing and things that would be nice to do.  I focus on the essentials on these days.  Leave the other stuff for another day.  But note them down so I don’t totally forget about them.

The doldrums will still come and go over time but there is no reason why I need to let them rule my life.

 

 

Posted in: attitude, energy, habits, schedules