Joy at Work Work at Joy: Living and Working Mindfully Every Day - Hardcover

Marques EdD, Joan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1932181539 ISBN 13: 9781932181531

Publisher: Personhood Press, 2010

Synopsis

Inspiring employees of all levels, this guide helps lay a foundation for creating a positive, uplifting attitude towards each work day by making mindful choices to be kind and supportive especially in collaborative situations. This empowering reference promotes acceptance, togetherness, interconnectedness, and mutuality as means to a happy, positive day. Each day of the year is allotted one page, providing a daily guiding thought, an action to try to accomplish, and an idea to ponder, sometimes in the form of a short story. These practical, daily steps help turn a workplace into a more joyful, gratifying, and productive space.

About this title

About the Author

Joan Marques, EdD, is the author of Empower the Leader in You and The Global Village and the cofounder of the Business Renaissance Institute. She lives in Burbank, California.

Excerpt. İ Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Joy at Work, Work at Joy

Living and Working Mindfully Every Day

By Joan Marques

Personhood Press

Copyright İ 2010 Joan Marques
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-932181-53-1

CHAPTER 1

January 1

GUIDING QUOTE:

Life is a promise; fulfill it.

~MOTHER TERESA

ACTION:

I am fulfilling my life's promise by lending a smile to all those who may have a hard time finding one of their own. I radiate my good intentions, show that I care. This way, I enrich my own spirit and those I encounter.

POINT TO PONDER:

The promise of life can only be fulfilled through our own actions. That is the power we have. If we decide to give in to misery, mean-spiritedness, or tedium, we will dread our circumstances, and the fulfillment of life's promise will be bleak. If we decide to be courageous, loving, and mindful, we will enjoy every step of the journey, and the fulfillment of life's promise will be grand! We are the sculptors of our life, and we can create either a beautiful sculpture of togetherness by showing that we care, or a desolate monument filled with egotistical "I"-ness. We make the promise; we fulfill it.

January 2

GUIDING QUOTE:

Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.

~EPICTETUS

ACTION:

I use my power by offering my assistance where it is not expected — helping out a colleague, assisting a stranger, taking my loved ones out to dinner tonight. By making their day, I am making mine as well.

POINT TO PONDER:

An old couple got curious when they saw a young man dressed in working clothes passing by their cottage every day with a spade and a briefcase. After two weeks of watching, they decided to take a stroll before the young man arrived to see what he was doing. They came upon a rocky area and saw that he had been digging a trench. When he arrived, the old lady asked what he was doing and what he had in the briefcase. The young man explained, "I'm learning how to dig a good trench because the job I'm being interviewed for later today says that experience is essential, so I'm getting the experience. And the briefcase ... it's got my lunch in it." He got the job.

January 3

GUIDING QUOTE:

One must not attempt to justify [aspirations and judgments], but rather to sense their nature simply and clearly.

~ALBERT EINSTEIN

ACTION:

Instead of justifying others as if they are part of a different world, I try to see the mirror of myself that is everyone around me. I seek to understand before wanting to be understood. I keep in mind that each of us has our own reality, and that such is what makes the world a beautiful place.

POINT TO PONDER:

Two monks were washing their bowls in the river when they noticed a scorpion that was drowning. One monk immediately scooped it up and set it upon the bank. In the process he was stung. He went back to washing his bowl and again the scorpion fell in. The monk saved the scorpion and was again stung. The other monk asked him, "Friend, why do you continue to save the scorpion when you know its nature is to sting?" "Because," the monk replied, "to save it is my nature."

(Adopted from John Suler, "Zen Stories to Tell Your Neighbors")

We should remain true to our nature and respect that of others.

January 4

GUIDING QUOTE:

It is the greatest mistake to think that man is always one and the same. A man is never the same for long. He is continually changing. He seldom remains the same even for half an hou

Edition details

• Publisher: Personhood Press
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1932181539
• ISBN 13: 9781932181531
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 408