The Daily Mind

Daily Steps To Mindful Living

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How To Control The Ego At Work

Life, Personal Growth, Spirit

What is the ego? The ego is a construct of the mind which creates a story around past experiences, emotions, opinions, failures, successes, etc. Once these stories are personalized in a way that we identify ourselves as our thoughts and our story. The ego begins to takes shape.

Ego at Work

So thoughts around “I” “me” and “mine” all work to enhance an illusion of self-worth. I call it an illusion because anything that is driven by the ego is measured against some external source; a car or house, a position of power, opinions of others. All of these things are fleeting in nature, however, the self not based on the ego remains. [Read more…] about How To Control The Ego At Work

Originally posted on April 8, 2014 @ 9:00 am

Why Do You Still Hate Your Job?

Inspiration, Life, Spirit


Creative Commons License photo credit: Andy Wilkes

You get up every day with a frown on your face. Grab your towel, drudge down the hall to the shower. Get dressed, eat some breakfast, kiss your kids goodbye and walk out the door. In half an hour you’ll be back at the job you hate. Tomorrow you will do it all again.

But why?

Why do you continue to work in the job you hate? Why do you get up every day of your life and spend eight precious hours doing something you resent? In this post I want to take a look at this common phenomenon and try to give you some suggestions to change your attitude towards work. It is time to stop hating your job.

30,000 hours of misery

I know people who have been in the same job for 20 years and have hated every minute of it. Now lets assume they work five days a week and 45 weeks of the year. That means they have spent around 30,000 hours doing something they hate. What a waste. What a waste of the precious time that we have on this planet.

Should I quit?

This article is not really about quitting your job. It is more about learning to love your job. But lets be honest. If you hate your job so much that you feel like there is nothing you can do to change it then it is time to quit. Be brave, start looking for other career options and then hand in your resignation letter.

When it comes to the end of your life you do not want to look back and say, “I spent 30,000 hours in a job that I hated. I wasted my life.” Stop thinking about all the reasons not to quit (mortgage, financial crisis, etc.) and find a way to make it happen.

Learning to love your job

I honestly believe that we need to do more to learn to love our jobs. It is not enough to just go to work and go home every day – we need to try and make that experience more rewarding. Its time to stop hating your job. It is time to realize that your own attitude can make a big difference to your happiness. Here are some suggestions.

1. Recognize how lucky you are
Seriously, we have it pretty good in the West. We have quite nice job laws that protect us in many ways. We get a regular pay check. And we get to go home to a house. Not a shanty or a plastic tent, an actual house.

It is time to start recognizing how lucky you are. Why spend your whole life cursing your situation when, in actual fact, your situation is pretty good?

2. Be more grateful
Similar to number one is learning to be more grateful. A lot of workers go about their daily business thinking that somebody owes them something. The boss owes them more pay. The payroll officer owes them more overtime. The Board owes them a promotion. No. They don’t. Nobody owes you anything. That is your own expectations talking.

Instead of thinking that the world owes you something why not be grateful? Be grateful for the number of hours you got this week. Be grateful that you have a dental plan. Be grateful that you made it to work alive, even if you weren’t driving a Mercedes. Learning to be grateful is one of the most important things you can do if you want to change how you view your work.

3. Think of all the opportunities it has created
When I was just out of high school I really wanted to go to India to meet some Buddhist masters. But I was broke. So, I got a job as a cleaner in the dirtiest pub in town cleaning up 20 year old’s vomit, cigarette butts and a whole lot of other junk. For a few weeks I hated it.


Creative Commons License photo credit: trixnbooze

Over time, however, I realized that this job was enabling me to go on a journey of a lifetime. It was due to that job that I traveled to India and went to some of the most amazing places on the planet. I met great meditation masters and found friends that have loved and cared for me ever since. I will never forget sitting at the Dalai Lama’s teaching hall and watching him smile and wave as he walked past and thinking, “Wow! That shitty cleaning job just allowed me to meet the Dalai Lama himself.”

Your job has probably bought you a house, nice food, a car, medical care, etc. It has probably allowed you to do things that you never thought you would do. Think about those things.

4. Realize it is your own fault
I want to introduce you to a Buddhist teaching from a book called the Seven Points of Mind Training. In that book it says “condense all blames into one”. What this means is that anytime a bad thing happens to you it is your own fault.

Now why is it our fault? Well from the Buddhist point of view it is like that because we have created the karma that caused that condition to come around. A very simple example might be that you now have a bad job because you slacked off in high school.

Whether you “believe” the karma theory it is a useful slogan to use in your work life. The next time something bad happens to you think “condense all blames into one” and move on. Don’t get angry at the person or the situation, just consider that it is your fault and move on.

This is a fantastic way to live your life as you are no longer getting angry with the world around you. You now realize that your happiness depends on you. You and no one else. If you want something to change you need to change it. If a bad situation occurs it is up to you to rectify it.

Conclusion

So why do you still hate your job? Why do you still go to work every day and refuse to be happy? Will you attempt to change that attitude? Once you go to work with the positive attitudes mentioned above I can guarantee your life will be more meaningful.

If you have any other suggestions please leave a comment and let us know. It might really help someone.

Originally posted on April 6, 2009 @ 10:28 pm

11 Easy Ways to Save Money at Work

Life


Creative Commons License photo credit: ImipolexG

We go to work to make money but quite often we spend a lot of that hard earned money while we are working! We pay for transport, parking, lunches an more. In this post I am going to show you the best ways to save money at work.

1. Ride a bike
Riding a bike to work is one of the best ways to save money, keep fit and look good. If your office is under 30 minutes away from your home riding to and from work will save you a lot of money over the years. Gas prices are getting higher and higher but you must also consider the costs of health care that you might avoid by keeping fit.

2. Catch the bus
If you don’t want to ride to work the next best option is to catch the bus. This is a better option for a lot of people as it keeps you out of the weather and saves a bit of time. Again, catching the bus will save you money as well as having many other benefits such as helping to reduce green house gas emissions.

3. Get your car serviced and wheels aligned
If you really don’t want to ride or catch the bus it is important to keep your car well maintained. Having your wheels well aligned is particularly important. Poorly aligned wheels create a lot of resistance and make your car a lot less fuel efficient.

4. Fill up on fuel ahead of time
If you wait until your car is nearly empty to fill up you run the risk of paying more for petrol. Whatever the oil companies might say there are cheap days and expensive days. In Australia the petrol price goes up 10 to 15 cents on Wednesday morning for no good reason. If you leave it until then to fill up you are spending more than you need to. Watch your petrol stations price activity for a few weeks and ear mark the days that are more affordable.

5. Buy a yearly parking pass
If you pay for parking everyday you are losing a lot of cash. Almost every parking station in the world offer annual memberships which discount your parking by a massive percentage. If your closest car park doesn’t offer an annual fee service don’t be afraid to ask for one. You will be surprised how often you can strike a deal.

6. Ask a nearby building for a car park deal
Nearby office blocks with their own internal car parking are a sneaky way to save some parking dollars. Quite often these car parks are underutilized and the owners will jump at the opportunity to take a years worth of parking money from you. I know several people in my fathers office who have struck a deal with the building next door and are saving hundreds of dollars a year.

7. Experiment with different routes
The shortest route in terms of distance is not always the fastest. Traffic jams, long lasting red lights, multitudes of pedestrians, etc. can all slow a route down. Experiment with different routes because a long one might save you a lot of time and petrol.

8. Pack your lunch
I know a lot of people who are against packing their lunch and taking it to work because they are afraid of looking like a school kid. I can understand this but there are a few ways around it.

One way is to tell people you are on a doctor ordered health diet in an attempt to get your cholesterol down. Or you might be trying to lose some weight. For some reason these reasons seem more acceptable than telling people you need to save a bit of money.

Packing your lunch doesn’t have to be a sandwich in a lunch box. You can bring in some gourmet vegetable soup in a thermos or the leftovers of last night’s vegetable curry. A lot of this home cooked stuff is better than the local eateries anyway.

9. Make your lunch at work
Recently Mrs. Daily Minder has started making her lunch at work. She heads down to the local market and buys a bunch of fresh produce. Some days she has a tuna and chili salad and other days a salad and chicken wrap. And she has saved a lot of money. This method takes a lot of discipline though. If you are anything like me you will just end up eating at the restaurant next to the market!

10. Don’t buy coffee
I used to buy one of two coffees per day. A coffee costs about $3 so two coffees will set you back $6 per day. That is $2190 per year. Think of what you can do with $2190. Upgrade your car, pay for some medical bills, put away some savings, etc. Why not make your coffee instead of buying them? Over time you will get pretty good at it and it will save you a few dollars a year.

11. Explore your tax options
There are a quite a few work related expenses that you can get back at tax time. For example, you might be able to get back a certain amount for clothes washing, petrol expense, mobile phone bills, etc. Make sure you find a couple income tax calculators handy or even better, talk to your accountant about this when June comes along.

Anyone got any more tips?

Originally posted on September 17, 2008 @ 5:06 am

9 Tight Computer Hacks to Save You an Hour a Day

Life


Creative Commons License photo credit: f_mafra

I use a computer to make my living. Many people do. Over the years I have found some pretty cool tips and tricks that make me a lot faster on the old PC or Mac. In this post I’ll show you how to save an hour a day by utilizing some tight computer hacks that will speed up the way you do things.

Note – These are simple hacks that anyone can use regardless of their level of computer knowledge.

Why use these hacks?

The purpose of giving you these time savings computer hacks is two fold:

i. To help you accomplish more work
Obviously, if you are faster at using the computer you will be able to get more work done. This could mean more money or perhaps even a promotion depending on how effective you are able to become.

ii. To give you more time for you
What is more important is that you will have more time for you. This means hobbies, family, meditation or whatever it is you need to accomplish but aren’t due to having too much work.

9 tight computer hacks to save you an hour a day

1. Use Firefox instead of Internet Explorer
Mozilla Firefox has revolutionized internet browsing – if you aren’t already using it you are way behind. Forget the default Internet Explorer; Firefox is safer, more efficient and much more intuitive.

There are a myriad of reasons as to why Firefox is better than the old IE. Here are just a few of them:

  • Its safer:
    Firefox does a much better job at blocking spyware from jumping on to your computer through your browser window.
  • Block pop ups:
    Know those little pop ups that come along every time you visit a cheap site? Firefox, for the most part, kills these bad boys before they arise.
  • Remembers passwords:
    And not in the way IE “does” it. It really remembers them. Very handy.
  • Extensions:
    The major advantage of Firefox is all the wonderful plugins and extensions that you can use. These extensions are written by coders for specific reasons and often save you a lot of time. For example, I have an extension that allows me to edit a websites coding and see the changes in real time. Great for a web designer! Have a look at some of the extensions here.
  • Very intuitive:
    Firefox seems natural. That was one of the first things that struck me about it. It is easy to use and feels like “home” in no time at all.

Download firefox from the link above and give it a test run. You can keep both IE and FF on your computer at the same time so if you don’t like it just uninstall it – no dramas.

2. Use the tab button
Instead of using the mouse to move the cursor to the next online box use the tab button.

For example, when you write your username and password details to access your email you can press tab to move down from the username bar to the password bar. This is a very basic tip that will save you a lot of time over the span of the day.

You can use this for more than use email boxes as well. The tab button will help you when filling out online forms, signing up for new accounts or entering in your internet banking information.

3. Learn all the hotkeys
A hotkey is a keyboard version of performing a task that you would normally do with a mouse. It is a shortcut. For example, if you are writing a document in Microsoft Word and you want to save it you can just press CTRL and ‘S’ instead of taking you hand off of the keyboard and on to the mouse and going File and then Save.

Both PCs and Macs have hundreds of different hot keys. Not only that, each program you use has a different set. Photoshop has a different set to Microsoft Word, Excel has a different set to Flash and so on. At first it might seem daunting to learn all of these hot keys. Its a lot to memorize. But the result is well worth it, you computer use speed will increase and increase.

So how do you learn these hot keys? Well the easiest way is to look in all the menus on your computer. For example, if you go to Microsoft Word and then run your mouse over the File, Edit, View, etc. menus you will see that next to each command there is a keyboard equivalent. Try to remember the common ones like save, copy, paste, etc. and gradually learn a few more everyday.

There is a great list of hotkey shortcuts here.

4. Use a free feed reader to read your favorite blogs and sites
Do you spend the first hour of your day visiting all you favorite websites and blogs to see if they have updated? If you do you are wasting time. A lot of time.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and it is a super efficient way to read all of your favorite sites. Why? You don’t actually have to visit the site to read the updates.

RSS (or feed) works like this. Sign up for a free feed reader such as Bloglines or Google Reader and simply use the ‘Add Sites’ button to add all of your most loved websites. The feed reader will then check periodically whether or not those sites have updated and inform you when they do. You can then read that update in the feed reader window without ever having to visit the site.

This is a fantastic way to stay up to date. Imagine how much time you will save not having to go to 10 or 15 different websites everyday. And what’s more is you can use this technology on forums threads, blogs, facebook, etc. To find out more about how to read The Daily Mind in a feed reader check this out. [Read more…] about 9 Tight Computer Hacks to Save You an Hour a Day

Originally posted on September 9, 2008 @ 11:18 am

Lessons From India: Having a Purpose at Work

Life, Personal Growth, Spirit, Travel

Guru Rinpoche Statue in Tso Pema

I am in India at the moment so there will be lots of posts coming soon in my “lessons from India” series. Make sure you subscribe to the feed so you catch them all!

Today is the birthday of the most important meditation master in Tibetan Buddhist history. His name is Guru Rinpoche and he is the Indian yogi who brought the teachings to Tibet from India where they stayed safe for over a thousand years.

His birthday is a special occasion for Buddhists; especially those in the town of Tso Pema where I am currently living. The reason for that is because Tso Pema was Guru Rinpoche’s last stop in India before he went into Tibet. There are over 10 caves in this town where he meditated and is said to have attained great realization. These caves are wonderful places to meditate and are very still and quiet.

To celebreate his birthday my three friends and I decided we would hike up the mountain to his caves. The hike takes about four hours and is extremely tough on the back and legs. It is well worth the trek, however, as the experience at the top is incredible. It was during this massive hike that I realized how important it is to have a purpose at work.

Having a Purpose at Work

Let me set the scene for you. It is 39 degrees celcius, pouring with monsoon rains and very sticky. The altitude is Himalayan; we are so high that it is difficult to get your breath back when you are puffed out. We walked the hill at a snail’s pace and we were still dripping with sweat and struggling to take each step.

But we made it because we had a purpose. We wanted to see Guru Rinpoche’s special caves on his birthday.

Having a purpose in the back of our minds made the difficult trek easier. Each step had a purpose and each hardship became part of something more meaningful. It was not hardship for the sake of hardship, it had a deeper purpose for us.

Half way up the hill it struck me how important this sense of purpose is for accomplishing difficult taks.

This is especially true for the workplace.

So the first lesson from India for you all is about finding your sense of purpose at work. Why do you go to work every morning? It can’t just be for the money. It has to be something deeper and more satisfying. Something that can keep you going when the times get tough.

If you have a good purpose you will find it easier to reach your goal, endure hardships and make it to the top. And then you will see a view like this…

The vew from the top of the mountain

Originally posted on July 12, 2008 @ 1:41 pm