Call me naïve, but I didn’t realize how rampant cheating was in school and in the workplace until recently. Did you know that 80% of the country’s best students cheated to get to the top of their class? Or that over half of students questioned didn’t feel cheating was a big deal because everyone was doing it? These statistics are from the Educational Testing Service which has partnered with the Ad Council to combat cheating in our schools. Why is this acceptance of cheating so commonplace?  I think it is because so many parents also cheat!

Employee cheating is as rampant as student cheating. Many employees justify their cheating because of things they feel are unfair such as poor working conditions, less than great pay, or lack of benefits. Others don’t see what they are doing as cheating; spending an hour or more each day reading personal e-mails, texting, scheduling dental appointments, etc. In 2004 Ira Wolfe, a consultant, wrote a very interesting article on this subject titled Cheating. Lies, and Other Workplace Ethics. He states, “Managing ethics in business today is helping employees understand how to navigate the gray space.”  My question is why is there a gray space at all?   Read the rest of this entry »

Meditation is part of my daily routine. I call it my happy pill. It helps me feel happier and be more successful at the things I need to accomplish that day. It also helps me to be calmer when the unexpected occurs. It helps me feel less anxious and find solutions to problems easier. So what exactly is meditation?

Meditation has been practiced for hundreds of years as a form of religious practice.  It is believed to be rooted in Eastern religions such as Taoism, Buddhism, and Hinduism, but has also been an element of Judaism and Christianity. Many practitioners claim it is a deliberate way to alter consciousness.

Many people are not aware of meditation’s religious roots; however they are aware of it as a way to relax and get in touch with their feelings. Being able to control your thoughts is also a goal of meditation. Transcendental meditation is probably the most well known form of meditation.  In this type of meditation a person sits in a comfortable position with their eyes closed and repeats a mantra such as “ummmmm.” This mantra can be spoken vocally or just thought in your mind. A true disciple of transcendental meditation will attend a formal training program and have a personalized Sanskrit word or phrase. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes when our expectations aren’t met, we might find that our attitude suffers. A good friend of mine feels that unmet expectations are the cause of most disagreements. I have thought about this a lot during the past week and have discovered its truth. I have also discovered a remedy – gratitude.

Do you ever feel picked on?  The other day my 10-yr old daughter was feeling especially picked on at school.  She and three of her friends had a tiff, some angry words were spoken, and two of the girls ran off. My daughter felt sad. After school she thought about it a bit. She realized how grateful she was for her friends. They were great friends, and she wanted to get along with them.

She decided to make up with her friends the next day. She would apologize for some things she said. She would tell the other girls that some of the argument was her fault. She looked at her own actions and analyzed them. (Needless to say, I was very proud of her!) She realized that part of the problem was she had expected her friends to behave differently. This caused her to have a bad attitude, which affected how she acted. She was able to see her own actions more clearly after she felt grateful for her friends. This feeling of gratitude changed her attitude. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the first steps to success is to discover what you like.  Success comes easier if you enjoy what you are doing or creating.  I think all happy people create; they create actual items others want, or they create and give services others need.  If you enjoy doing something so much that you would do it for free, then you are blessed to be doing something you love, and you can stop reading!

Many people are blessed to know exactly what they love to do, however, others have no clue.  How can this be?  Many of the things we liked to do as children were not thought “proper” in some respect by others.  Maybe no one thought you could make a good living with a particular talent you had, so you didn’t develop it. Maybe your friends didn’t think what you liked was cool. Or maybe you were like me and were just plain indecisive. We usually don’t even know that our real desires have been covered up. If you’re not sure what your real job should be, keep reading. Read the rest of this entry »

Critical Thinking is a form of judgment, specifically of what one should do (or believe) based on the evidence at hand.  In other words it is thinking thoughtfully.  When considering academic pursuits, it is integrating learning into one’s store of knowledge.  Many times people learn material for a test, and then promptly forget it.  This may be because they think the material is boring, don’t think they will use it again, or don’t feel it is relevant to them.  And, in reality, many times they’re right.  We can look up the year Columbus sailed the ocean blue, so why remember that tidy fact.

Lake Waterton, Canada

Other subjects need to be more carefully considered for future reference in making decisions.  The only way to do this is to consider how something affects you. The example I gave yesterday was when I was invited to attend a horror movie and declined. Having the typical teenage syndrome of “I want everyone to like me,” it would have been easy for me to put aside my bias and go to the movies. However, I knew I would not only be wasting my time – I would hate the experience.

So what is my point?  My point is that we need to take time to critically think about events in our personal lives, as well as in the world at large.  This helps us make the best decisions for our circumstances.  Read the rest of this entry »