Problems Focusing On The Job

Have you ever known a worker who can't handle pressure and stress? I have.  As long as the worker was given ample time to perform the task at work, the worker was fine. But as soon as anyone put pressure on him to finish the task sooner, the worker would 'fall apart.'

In other words, the person would lose his focus and start making mistakes.  There are many workers who can't handle stress or pressure. They don't deliberately make mistakes. Their focus is lost and they cannot push aside the stress and focus on the job.

Many workers have a tough time leaving their personal problems at home when they go to work. They let their personal problems distract them. They fail to focus on their current task and consequently their productivity drops and so does the quality of their work.

Sometimes it's something a worker hears on the news. I remember when the second United Nations tower was struck by a plan on 9/11.  I was so upset and shocked by this horrible terrorist act, I could not focus on what I was doing.

But some people can't focus for other reasons; reasons that would not distract most workers.  The key to holding one's focus is the ability to push other issues aside.

At one place at work, a worker asked me why I'm was not upset at the new company policy. I told him that if I allow myself to get upset, I won't get my job done.

When a worker is under a lot of pressure to get the task done, the key word is relax and focus on the task. If the worker thinks about the deadline constantly, the worker will not complete the task on time. If the worker gets frustrated, the worker will not complete the task on time. The worker should stay calm and focus on the task at hand.

My Diet and Liver Problems

I did not realize until recently how red meats affect the liver.  The first phase of a bad liver is a swollen liver. At that point my diet had to change. I had to get off the red meats and other foods loaded with saturated fats and start eating more fruits and vegetables.

I don't like overcooked vegetables. My present diet has consisted of nuts, grapes, figs, pears, turkey, spinach, peas, beans, corn, hot cereals, etc.  My diet before the liver problems included lots of hamburgers, peanut butter, steaks, french fries, etc.

I guess part of the problem is that I am getting older. When I was younger, I was able to eat anything I wanted. Now I have to watch the amount of salt, cholesterol and saturated fats in my food. I am now on the healthiest diet since I was 18 years old.

And the strange thing is: I am enjoying the new healthy diet. I look forward to all the fruits I eat. I love the hot cereals. I always add raisins and figs to my hot cereal. I also add wheat germ to my pasta and rice.

I never was a big drinker of alcoholic beverages. My intake of alcoholic beverages was limited to a glass of champagne on New Year's Eve. And I never took any drugs except over-the-counter medications and prescription drugs.  So I think I am in pretty good shape; the key word being 'think.'

It always pays to catch a health problem early. That's what happened with my liver problem. The doctor spotted it during my last physical. Now I'm really happy I did not postpone that physical.

My Favorite Alfred Hitchcock TV Episode

I always like the Alfred Hitchcock series on TV.  The stories were intriguing and I never knew how the story would end or who would survive. Each show had a totally different cast and different plot. Alfred Hitchcock employed a lot of humor in his introduction to the show and comments during and at the end of the show.

My favorite show was about a little girl who received a plastic doll. The doll turned out to be a lot more than a simple doll.  The doll was able to become another human child and play with the little girl. At times they would switch places. The doll would become human and the little girl would become a plastic doll.

It seemed like a story you would expect to see on the Twilight Zone or Outer Limits.

Unwanted Voice Messages and Text Messages

Have you been pestered by marketeers and campaign ads? Do you receive campaign ads on your cell phone or your land-line phone?  Are you tired of receiving voice and text messages on topics you have no interest in? I am.

I suspect it's a marketeer that calls me every morning because they don't leave a message.  Either that or it's some credit card being offered by a bank at a 25% interest rate because they want to make up for all the people who max out their credit and never pay.

All the campaign ads are loaded with lies and empty promises that will never be fulfilled.

I am on the national no-call list but I guess that doesn't apply to financial institutions and campaign ads.

Sometimes, when I hear a campaign ad on my answering machine, I pick up the receiver and then hang it up.

I've also received calls from debt collectors about people who don't live here and never lived here. I try to tell them that the person does not live here, but the collectors keep on calling. So I hang up on them too.

The great part about an answering machine is that you can use it to filter your incoming calls.  If the calling number is restricted, we wait for the voice or text message. Then we decide if we want to respond.

Jim Quit Looking For a Job. Why?

So Jim can't find a job and he gave up looking.  It was the height of the recession in Jan 2009. Over a hundred thousand jobs disappeared. It seemed like no one was hiring. But that's not  the total reason why Jim stopped looking.

Jim is not a quitter. He is a very hard worker. He is not mentally challenged. He is just slower than other people. And when he tried to speed up, he'd make mistakes.

Jim is a slow thinker and he is not mechanically coordinated.  Before forming a conclusion, think about it. It you are a slow thinker, it takes you longer to perform a task that requires some thought. So the perplexing question is: How do you speed up your thinking?

There are herbs that will sharpen your memory. But a sharp memory is not what Jim needed. He needed to think faster. So when he saw others find the solution to a problem, he would ask them in the hopes of finding an answer for himself, "How did you figure that out?"

The answer Jim got did not help him. "I don't know. It just came to me."

The answer just popped into the person's mind. No known thought process. No method of arriving at that answer.

Jim wasn't convinced. He asked others. Is it the thought process? Or is it something else?  If one thinks slower, one works slower. And if one has a reputation of being a little slow, one won't find a job. Not in a recession.

That's why Jim quit looking. Now don't get the wrong idea. Jim is not collecting unemployment compensation. Jim is not on Welfare and Jim is not on food stamps. Jim is waiting and hoping the economy is getting better.

Millions of people are waiting for the economy to get better. And I'll bet most of them could give you a pretty damn good reason for waiting.

I Know What Depression Is and What Laziness Is Not

I know what it is like to suffer depression. I know what it's like to feel listless. I know what it's like to want to stay in bed all day and all night. I know what it is like to stop caring. I know what it's like to face failure.

Failure. The world, the schools, the parents and the teachers . . . They all teach us how to handle success. But who teaches us how to handle failure.  Do you know that there are people in this world who won't try?  No, they are not lazy.  Some of them are very intelligent and very knowledgeable. They are afraid of failure. They can't face it. They can't handle it. Nobody told them how to. So when they face their first failure, they experience depression -- even hopelessness.

Feeling listless and feeling like sleeping all the time comes with depression. Being angry at the whole world is not always a part of depression, but it is a symptom.

Some folks, like myself, are very strong. I don't mean physically strong. I mean strong inside. Something one cannot see. But it's there. And it's evident by the person's tenacity, the person's determination, the person's persistence.  That person, like myself, finds ways to deal with depression.

Other folks have a very difficult time with depression and failure. They lose hope. They feel like they are in a room with no windows, no doors, no way out. Trapped. They feel like they are failures. Some of them have a very poor self image. They search desperately for help, but all they find is criticism. They only find people who yell at them; people who call them names.  Nobody wants to understand. Nobody wants to help. Or maybe, the person suffering depression is looking in the wrong place for help.

Medication helps one cope with depression. But that same medication can make one feel drowsy.  It can affect one's performance.

I get angry when I hear people calling other people lazy. It's easy to do name calling. It's much more difficult to try to help. That's . . .If the person wants help. If all the person is looking for is someone to listen. Listening helps. Sometimes talking about a personal problem helps.  Sometimes writing about it helps.

Sometimes it helps the person suffering from depression. But most important . . . Sometimes it helps those who need help.

The Old Perry Mason Mysteries

I loved the Perry Mason mysteries. I watched Perry Mason on TV as often as I could.. When I was a young teenager I use to go the public library, pick out a Perry Mason mystery, sit down and spend four hours reading the mystery.  It was very enjoyable cause I could hear Raymond Burr's voice in my mind as I read the mystery.

Erle Stanley Gardner must have had a couple of bad experiences with police lieutenants.  Lieutenant Tragg was incompetent. He was always  in such a hurry arrest a suspect. His investigation was sloppy and was not thorough.  Any District Attorney would have fired him. But not in the Perry Mason mysteries.

I remember reading 'The Case of the Empty Tin.'  Somewhere in the book, Erle Stanley Gardner told the reader that he wrote this mystery to show how incompetent Lieutenant Tragg was.  I think the actual word Erle Stanley Gardner used was 'dumb.'

The other character I was very fond of was the Private Investigator Paul Drake. I loved the conversations Paul Drake, Della Street and Perry had in Perry's office. The court sessions were very interesting. They contained a lot of information for the viewer or reader.

The solutions to the mysteries seemed somewhat contrived only because the clues Perry picked up were never explained. But the viewer knew by the expression on Perry's face that he had solved the murder.

I also watched the Perry Mason movies after the series ended.  Now I watch the old Perry Mason mysteries on channel 77 on CableVision.

The Doctor's Office Humor

I've been going for annual physicals since I was 50 years old.  My doctor was a very funny man.  One day while he was in the midst of a prostate exam, he wished me a happy birthday.

There were other funny moments. When my wife was there, the doctor said something in Yiddish and then started laughing. My wife explained to him that she did not understand Yiddish and asked him to translate it. He responded by saying that he wouldn't translate the Yiddish joke and then assured her that it was very funny.

I liked that doctor very much. When he learned that I could not lower my cholesterol by modifying my diet, he said, "You're screwed!"

The doctor I have now is very kind and very polite. Instead of saying he is going to perform a prostate exam, he asks my permission to perform a prostate exam. He isn't as funny as my other doctor, but I still like him a lot.