Posts Tagged ‘Work’

EIEIO… and on this farm

// July 15th, 2008 // No Comments » // Daily Life, Mind, Work

I receive Dan Miller’s 48 Days email newsletter each week. He is a wonderful communicator focusing on the message of going for your dreams as it relates to your occupation. He often prompts us to try new things and get out of ruts that we so often get stuck in. His latest book “No More Mondays: Fire Yourself — and Other Revolutionary Ways to Discover Your True Calling at Work“, is great.  This week his newsletter contained an old and familiar line from Old McDonald’s farm.  Instead of cows and chickens, Dan share’s some neat tips about how to engage people when you write, speak, or even while you’re at work.  Using EIEIO, you get the following:

  • (E) - Entertain
  • (I) - Inspire
  • (E) - Educate
  • (I) - Inform
  • (O) - Outrage

Says Dan:

I see so many people and companies speak or write without including any of these elements. They tell people their personal story or the features of their new product. All the while, their customers, coworkers and bosses are waiting for something that will Entertain, Inspire, Educate, Inform or Outrage them. If you’re trying to move up - just follow Old McDonald’s formula. You’ll be amazed at the success you’ll unleash.

Reflections on Labor Day

// September 5th, 2006 // No Comments » // Work

Goodbye, Nights and Weekends?? Most Americans believe the 9-to-5 workday is disappearing, according to a survey by Management Recruiter International. Of the more than 3,500 executives polled, 61% said the traditional workday hours will disappear. No one will look forward to weekends because they will no longer exist. As more people gain more control over when and where they work, neither the workday nor the workweek will have a distinguishable beginning or end. This is another of those blessing/curse things. We welcome the flexibility that technology allows but the breakneck speed many of you know in business is further blurring the line between work/home/family/leisure.

Already workers from the factory floor to the executive suite are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Many professionals like real estate agents have convinced themselves that to be competitive they must be available 24/7. Many have cell phones, lap tops, and pagers within reach at all times. A May survey by the Gallup Organization found that 43 percent of respondents had no summer vacation plans at all.

Watch this blurring of lines in your worklife. The natural cycles of work and leisure and taking time for the weekly Sabbath will not disappear without leaving a devastating trail. If you just exhale in your breathing, you will turn blue, pass out and die. You must take time to inhale the clean, pure, wholesome air to continue living. If you just work and never take time for leisure, you will pass out in some form: there will be family, emotional or physical death. The company may not create the boundaries; you will need to create your own.

Labor Day is a great time to reflect on the blessings we have in this country in being able to choose and to experience the fulfillment that comes from meaningful work — and rest.

From Dan Miller’s 48 Days.