Tag Life

Grumpier with Age? 🤬😜😁

Paul - The Wry Eye Guy Leave a comment

Can I be the only one suffering from this?
There are moments when I’m as angst-ridden & angry as I ever was in my teenage years. Maybe even more so. Little things can irritate me. Sometimes a lot. Am I just mad about my own physical & mental decline? Or are the actions of those that irritate me justifiably irritating?

I’m so grumpy now that I’m restricted to back office work. I’m not allowed to engage with the public. My family? They pretend they don’t know me. Well … more than they did before. Even the dog goes next door for some friendly human interaction now. We do still have a dog, dear, eh!?!

What could possibly irritate me to this extent?

How about people on TV or on online channels!
I’m weary of interviewers who like to think they’re asking the tough questions. It’s worse when they turn a question to an expert guest into an endless ramble. To demonstrate their own expertise first, I guess. I’m a little exasperated with the talking heads on the financial & business channels too. Do they, or their guru guests, really know what comes next? When the commercial break finally rolls around, there is no respite. Because that’s when I get yelled at. With great & rapid intensity. Look, I’m not going to buy the gadget, the gimmick, not even the useful tool, nor the wonderful item of very special clothing, because you’re yelling at me. Please stop with the yelling!

These days we have politicians of all stripes & flavours who don’t seem to have an agreeable bone in their bodies. Is it just my ageing brain that thinks things were better in the good old days? Did more people float a little closer to the political center back then? And were we all just a little kinder to each other not too many years ago? I really don’t know any more. Perhaps it’s just my rose tinted rear view mirror.
Click!
Change that channel.

Finally, there are the commercials designed for us older people! You know the ones where the older actors have these silly smiles plastered across their faces. It comes across like the geriatric equivalent of mini movies based on dime store romance novels. But instead of love, they’re pitching mobility aids, insurance, diapers & drugs. Actually, sometimes they’re pitching love too! I’m glad the older actors are getting paid but really, are these commercials made by young marketing graduates or what?🙄

All of these things, and more, encourage me to mute & change channels way more than ever before.

Unfortunately, and for a while, I sought escape in social media. What a bad idea that was! Didn’t all our grandmothers tell us that everything was okay? But only in moderation. I forgot the last bit. My bad, eh!

On the bright side, I have found some useful alternatives to screen time. Or rather to certain screen content. I find scenery & nature channel screen savers, for example, a good alternative to much “real” programming. But that’s not enough. I’ve been forced to look elsewhere for engagement.
You’ll never guess what I found!

I’ve started reading more again. I’ve gone back to learning French. Again! I’m planning some trips to places I’ve seen on those screen saver channels. I even started an exercise program that will hopefully help keep me doing it all for a little longer. I’m reluctant to admit this, but I kinda like chatting with AI bots too. All of this is preferable to fuming at the other stuff.

I’m probably going to regret chatting up these AI bots eventually. But meantime, they have helped me find some good books to read. One pointed me toward a great French course that I’m quite enjoying. They helped me put together a simple calisthenics program. Although that’s as likely to kill me as help me. For the most part, the little bots are doing a decent job of encouraging me to do things that are probably better for me. Especially the one that’s encouraging me to go out more! It even suggested that I check out a new cafe that is soon to open. It is conveniently close to me. Maybe these things are kinda smart after all.
Or are they just sucking me into their web?
With some evil intent in their little digital minds for when I’m hooked?
I don’t know, but I’ll go with it for now.

Ironically, a lot of the new stuff I’ve engaged with is happening on screen too! LOL
I’m reading the recommended books on my phone.
I’m doing the French course on the phone & tablet. Here’s a little hack if you’re interested in language learning btw: the writing bit of the French course is way easier on a small screen because of the predictive text. Very conveniently, it has all the accents already attached to the right letters! 😂
I even cast my calisthenics graphic from the little screen to the TV screen for my exercise program.
And I download my AI produced spreadsheets, widgets & tools to my laptop so I can spend even more time at the screen. In my defence, it’s for real work that!

But I’d like to think that all of this new approach to screen time is time well spent. Better spent? Better spent screen time? Whatever, you know what I mean, eh!

Am I the only one going through this trauma?
Does it get better or worse over time?
Help me out here!

TGIF & enjoy your weekend!

If you want to learn more about saving & investing, please check out Double Double Your Money, available at your local Amazon store.

Important – this is not investing, tax or legal advice, it is for entertainment & conversation-provoking purposes only. Data may not be accurate. Check the current & historical data carefully at any company’s or provider’s website, particularly where a specific product, stock or fund is mentioned. Opinions are my own & I regularly get things wrong, so do your own due diligence & seek professional advice before investing your money.

Civil Discourse in Life, Work & Leadership Roles

Paul - The Wry Eye Guy Leave a comment
Imperfect but Beautiful!

Imagine your child, or your grandchild, going off to school for the first time. It’s natural for us to be anxious; our little one is venturing into the big, bad world, all alone, for the first time. That’s almost as traumatic a time for parents & grandparents, as it is for the child. Still, we take comfort from our parenting skills. And from the values we share with friends & neighbours in our community. It’s a nice school, with respected teachers, who are reliably acting in loco parentis. Everything will be fine.

Until you collect your weeping child at the bus stop!

The gut-wrenching, heart-stopping impact of this moment can be felt by almost every human being. Upon discovering that your child was denigrated by another. Be it for reasons of appearance, affliction, race, religion, or any other cause, the immediate, visceral reaction may be one of extreme anger towards the perpetrator.

But, often, the pain was caused another child. Despite our emotion, we reign in our more agressive instincts & proceed with a more cautious & civil approach. We need to, both, sooth our child, & to address the problem. And in such a manner that it allows both children to move forward, together, in a civil & mutually respectful way.

In just about every sales course I’ve ever attended, or any sales book I’ve ever read, we are cautioned against speaking ill of our competition. Despite that, I’m guessing that most sales people will admit to having uttered a phrase that starts out something like this …

“That’s an interesting point, Ms. Customer, but …”

I should add a little mea culpa at this point, for my own, very rare, transgressions!

How about politics? It almost seems like the norm nowadays, in many countries, is to denigrate & divide. And some of us seem content, perhaps at times gleeful, that this is the case. As a politician, if you can lock in the firm support of a sufficiently large part of the constituency, you have a blueprint for successfully winning, & holding, power. It seems like everything is in play here; truths, half-truths, & possibly mis-truths, can be all be used. So long as the win is delivered. Sometimes, this is the will of the majority. And that may be democratic. But is it right?

Taking that political logic back to sales; were we to use truths, half-truths, & possibly mis-truths in the sales environment, would we be more successful? Frankly, if I could win 40 or 50% of the orders in my customer base, by modelling my approach on this political strategy, I would probably win some additional orders in the near term. Sure, half the base wouldn’t be speaking to me. But who cares? I’m still ahead where it matters. Right!?!

It almost feels like we’ve come around to believing that civil discourse is no longer required in our political leaders. Is it still required in our working life? Or in our daily interactions within our communities?

If this is the kind of world we want to live in …

Why do we pretend to teach our children that they should grow up to be nice, kind of heart, generous of spirit, & capable of civil discourse, as adults?

And if this is not the kind of world we want for our children …

Why do we sponsor & model such behavior for them?

Current of Kindness

Paul - The Wry Eye Guy

Spread Some Love Today

A little busy at the moment (& my diet is going sooo well too … NOT!) but I just feel compelled to reach out to the void sometimes so here’s a quick scribble. Not at all related to weight loss.

I’ve just discovered that going down for a cup of coffee & a cigarette is not a cure for insomnia. Going down for a second round just means you’re up & at it early today.

Woohoo! 😭😜😁

Here are few things I’ve learned, or relearned, this week, mainly about myself, but see if you can relate …

If you want me to say nice things about you behind your back, then try being nicer to me when we’re face to face. Of course, if I’m just saying things behind your back, you’ll never know, so who cares, right? Next time I see you, I’ll tell you what I really think of you, right to your face. I really think a lot of you, however, so you’ll probably regret not being nicer to me. Sorry!

I’m sometimes inclined to feel sad about things & I’ll think of someone else’s even bigger misfortune by way of leveraging comparitive positivity. Then I’ll feel guilty for doing that & wind up feeling even worse. Today, I think I’ll punish myself by putting a coffee & a sandwich in a coffee shop till for someone who needs it. And then I can spend the rest of the day wondering if that’s just more of the same!?!

Civilisation is but a fragile veneer, easily scratched. It’s sometimes little more than a slender facade covering what lies beneath. Its polish, thankfully, is nothing more than kindness. It only takes a positive bias towards kindness to steer us towards being a little more civil, being a little nicer to each other. I think we probably all have the responsibility to spread a little niceness around every day. I really don’t feel up to it today, however, so I’m hoping you can take on my burden, for me, just for today. Thanks, I really appreciate it.

Good grief, I can hardly believe this but I think I am going to have another coffee!

Is it Friday yet?

Have a good day, all.

And yes, I really mean it!

PS … Sometimes I write drivel & I pause a while before posting. When I reread the above, it sounded like so much drivel that I went down for another coffee & cigarette. Outside, I met a young lad who came down from Canada’s far north for medical treatment. He has broken bones & one eye is black & blue, swollen to the size of a baseball. He is soft spoken, pleasant, & he just feels like a nice human being. He was minding his own business, walking along the street, when he was set upon by two guys with hockey sticks.

I’ve changed my mind & will take back my responsibility for spreading some good today. If enough of us drop kindness pebbles in the pond, maybe we can can create a little current of kindness that will help overcome some of our more terrible inclinations. If you do anything nice today, please let me know. I would like to be re-reminded to keep it up.