Pursuit #9: Pyramid Scheme

No, I'm not trying to sell you Amway. I'm selling you Pampered Chef!

Kidding, kidding. I'm simply selling you some more psychology:)

The Pursuit:
So onto the pyramid schemes that relate to our lives. As you may recall, there's ye olde Food Guide Pyramid (which has undergone some recent renovation it looks like) telling us what of each food group we should eat. And there's also a lesser known pyramid (though it was created in the 1940's) telling us about our needs. According to psychologist Abraham Maslow, humans have a hierarchy of needs,  seen in his pyramid-shaped theory to explain human motivation.

According to Maslow, our basic needs start out as physical, then as people progress up the pyramid, needs become increasingly psychological and social. The first 4 basic needs are deemed deficiency needs  - Physiological, Safety, Love/Belonging, and Esteem - that arise out of deprivation. We work to satisfy those needs in order to alleviate any feelings of anxiety or stress we would feel from their deficiency in our lives.

The top need, Self-Actualization, is what he deems a growth need. This is not a need that arises from a lack of anything. Rather it is a need that arises from a desire to grow and develop as a person to achieve our own potential.

The Findings: 
I made a list of 3 significant activities that I have participated in during the last month that fit each category, either an overt activity or a covert behavior like a thought. Then using a rating scale, I rated my level of satisfaction in each of those categories based on how well those activities are meeting my needs. Nothing complex, simply did I feel slightly satisfied, generally satisfied, totally satisfied, or perhaps totally unsatisfied?

What I found was revealing about my priorities in life. Our ratings can fluctuate from day to day obviously, but it's interesting to account for where our focus is. Maybe I'm putting too much emphasis on my social well-being and not enough on my personal growth. Or maybe I'm satisfying my basic needs, but not to the extent that I would like to be (i.e. not sleeping enough, not eating healthily, not exercising enough etc). It's a good self-inventory practice that keeps us on the right path to becoming more self-actualized. Now go on with your bad self!

Pursuit #8: I need a j-o-b

I'm looking for a part-time job. I hate looking for jobs almost as much as having them. Just kidding...sort of. But really, for me searching for jobs is right next to, or quite possibly even superior to, grocery shopping as one of my least favorite activities.

As I was doing my reading for psychology, I came upon this tidbit in the textbook about job satisfaction:

"Obviously, job satisfaction depends largely on the job itself, including the interest level, the pay, coworkers, and management. It also depends on the worker's personality. Some people are just easier to please than others...if your close relatives say they are happy with their jobs, you probably will be also...You don't inherit your job, but you inherit your disposition...People who are prone to unpleasant feelings become exhausted with their work faster than others and are likely to complain of 'job burnout.'"

So now I know who to blame for my dislike of jobs! How do I become easier to please? How can I fight you, genetics?!

 

Pursuit #7: Morrie-ism

Sometimes the stars don't align for me - things don't go the way I envisioned them in my fantasy world (it's PG-13, don't worry) - and that frustrates me.

Sometimes I get really stressed out - all these little things keep mounting until I feel suffocated under this giant steaming ball of...poop - and that frustrates me (cause who wants to be suffocated by poop?)

Sometimes I feel like I just wake up on the proverbial wrong side of the bed -  I feel like that giant steaming ball of poop, but I don't know why - and that frustrates me.

And that is just reality.

I remember a snippet from Mitch Albom's book Tuesdays with Morrie, which I read quite a few years ago. It has really stuck with me since. When Mitch is interviewing Morrie, who is suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease (a progressive neurodegenerative fatal disease), he asks how Morrie can stay so positive each day. Morrie responds by saying some mornings he wants to cry and feel sorry for himself. So he does. He lets himself feel pain, sadness, grief or whatever the negative emotion is. But then he tells himself, "Ok, that is what sadness feels like. Now it's time to move on." (I'm paraphrasing).

Just have to remember to let myself feel, but not dwell.

Pursuit #6: The Pursuit

The Pursuit:
A lot of people move to LA or NYC to try to make it big or get discovered. You find them working as waiters/waitresses at California Pizza Kitchen, working at FAO Schwartz and cowboy boot stores (Nashville only) and the people wearing signs out in the street handing you coupons to broadway shows...And for like 99.99% of these people, their big break never comes. So it's easy to be cynical when someone has such dreams.

The Findings: 
But for this girl Christina Perri, it actually happened. Working as a waitress in LA, writing and recording songs in her free time, she had a Rockette friend who slipped her demo to a radio exec who asked Christina for a recording to use on So You Think You Can Dance. After it aired, within a whirlwind month, she got a record breaking number of downloads of her single Jar of Hearts before she even had got her record deal, and an offer to tour with Jason Mraz. Who knows how long this roller coaster will last for her, but I think she has talent...and I am the final say when it comes to that, obviously. If I could sing, I wish I had her voice - deep, dark, sultry. I enjoy her blog cause she's very honest and raw and she has posted some videos of her singing. As cheesy as it sounds, I feel like I can hear the passion in her voice. My favorite is this one:



Now I feel like such an underachiever and need to go do something with my life...But seriously, I like seeing hard working people with talent achieve their dreams much more than I do seeing a factory-molded pop artist churned out by the record label. Way to go, Christina!

Pursuit #5: At least I'm not in jail...

but if I were, I would want to hear from Greg Rutter.

Way to go, Greg, for turning a crappy stint in jail into a daily bombardment of vim, vigor and witty banter! dearlindsaylohan.com

 

Pursuit #4: Work = Games

The Pursuit: 
Today I shadowed a couple Occupational Therapists at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in DC. I have shadowed OT's in other locations including the Outpatient Therapy side of the NHR. But today was my first time shadowing on their Inpatient Therapy side. And lucky for me, I got to shadow the pediatrics unit, as well as the Brain Injury unit which I find fascinating. 

The Findings:
My day consisted of: playing Wii Bowling, the board game Guess Who?, soccer, horseshoes, a princess game, "grocery shopping" and velcro/tennis ball catch. And that was just a typical work day! I think I could get used to this Occupational Therapy thing:) The best part is seeing how happy the kids were and to hear from the therapists how far each of the patients has come. One adult brain injury patient was sadly going to be sent to a nursing home because his family didn't want him. So the OT spent the last session shaving off his beard that had developed. It's the simple things like that that really make a difference for these patients who have been hospitalized for so long.

Pursuit #3: Operation Beautiful

My friend Anne has a friend who has a website called Operation Beautiful which is really fantastic.

"The mission of Operation Beautiful is to post anonymous notes in public places for other women to find. The point is that WE ARE ALL BEAUTIFUL."

People take photos of the notes they leave in a public place with a nice quote about how we're all beautiful the way we are. It can be something as simple as "Smile! You're beautiful!" but the message is still the same. Hopefully someone finds my note in the women's bathroom on the first floor of the CS building of NOVA Annandale campus and gets a warm fuzzy feeling inside:)

Operation Beautiful: Pass it on!