#Helping Ourselves through Peer support and Employment

[speed-seo]

The Mindset of a Thriving SEO Professional: Personal Growth, Professional Excellence, and Social Support

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is one of the hottest careers out there right now. With constant changes in algorithms and best practises, the demand for skilled SEO professionals has skyrocketed. The US Bureau of Labour Statistics predicts employment for web developers and digital marketers will grow 13% through 2026. That's over 100,000 new jobs! With all this opportunity also comes competition and the pressure to stay on top of your game. I've been in the SEO field for over 11 years now, and let me tell you - mindset is everything if you want to thrive in this career long-term. So what is the SEO mindset exactly? In my experience, it's a growth-oriented way of thinking that helps you achieve success by purposefully developing yourself across three key areas: personal growth, professional excellence, and social support. In this article, I want to have an open discussion about the importance of mindset for us SEO pros. By cultivating key skills across those personal, professional, and social realms, we can all thrive - and even when we hit roadblocks, have the resilience to power through. I'll share some insights from my own journey about what's helped me thrive, and provide tips you can apply yourself. The future looks bright for our profession, but we have to be ready to grow with it. Together, we can build fulfilling careers in this exciting field. Now let's dive into those three mindset pillars - personal growth, professional excellence, and social support. I'll start by exploring some ways we can develop ourselves on a personal level to cultivate the right mindset for SEO success. This includes things like lifelong learning, managing stress, and finding work-life balance. Personal Growth: The Key to an SEO Mindset As SEO professionals, we need to cultivate personal growth and resilience to thrive in this demanding career. I know firsthand how disheartening it can feel when you've put in long hours optimising a site and the rankings aren’t moving. It's easy to get frustrated and burned out. But don’t lose hope! Here are some strategies that have helped me stay motivated and committed for the long haul: Commit to Lifelong Learning Staying current is key in this fast-paced industry. Make learning a habit by: - Subscribing to industry blogs and newsletters - Taking online courses on new skills - Attending conferences when possible There are always new best practises and algorithms evolving. View learning as a lifelong journey to stay on top of changes. Celebrate Small Wins Progress can feel painfully slow in SEO at times. Make sure to acknowledge and celebrate the small gains, like: - Moving up one spot in rankings - Getting a new client referral - Increasing traffic or conversions Over time, these small wins add up to big results. Lean on Your Colleagues Other SEO pros face the same frustrations and challenges. Build relationships with peers you can reach out to for support and motivation. It helps to know you're not alone! Prioritise self-care. Don't neglect activities outside of work that nourish you and help you recharge, like: - Exercise and movement - Favourite hobbies or reading - Spending time in nature - Practising mindfulness or meditation Taking time to refuel gives you more energy and creativity for your SEO work. The key is patience, perseverance, and purposeful personal growth. With consistent effort over time, you can achieve SEO success! Keep learning, stay resilient, and celebrate progress. You've got this! Professional Excellence: Sharpening Your SEO Skills Succeeding as an SEO pro requires constantly honing your professional skills and expertise. Here are some key ways to sharpen your knowledge and work towards excellence: Invest in Quality Education Stay on top of the latest strategies and tools with: - Paid online courses and certifications - Seminars, workshops, and training programmes - Books and eBooks on SEO techniques Continuous learning is crucial for staying relevant in this field. Make time and budget for professional development. Master Technical SEO Skills Go beyond the basics by gaining skills like: - Data analysis and analytics - Python, SQL, and programming - Web development and site architecture Technical expertise gives you an edge and allows you to test innovative approaches. Collaborate with Other Experts Brainstorm ideas and share knowledge by: - Joining online SEO communities - Attending conferences and networking - Building relationships with colleagues Leverage the wisdom of other professionals to sharpen your expertise. Structure Your Workday Work efficiently by: - Creating an organised project management system - Minimising distractions and interruptions - Optimising energy levels and focus A purposeful structure maximises your productivity. Like personal growth, professional excellence requires consistency over time. But the investment is worth it for achieving SEO success and career fulfilment! Stay hungry to keep learning, collaborating, and honing your skills. Social Support: Creating Your Community SEO careers can feel solitary at times. But surrounding yourself with a strong support system makes the journey more rewarding. Here are some ways to build community: Nurture Personal Relationships Make time for family and friends by: - Setting boundaries and limiting extra work hours - Sharing your SEO knowledge and passion - Planning fun non-work activities together Strong personal connections renew your spirit. Give Back to the SEO Community Find ways to help others, like: - Mentoring those new to SEO - Volunteering your expertise - Creating free tutorials and resources Giving back creates meaning while strengthening the community. Forge Connections with Colleagues Build camaraderie by: - Socialising and networking at conferences - Starting an online SEO mastermind group - Grabbing virtual coffee to collaborate Peer connections provide invaluable support and inspiration. While SEO can be an isolating career, making community and relationships a priority fills your life with joy and meaning while powering your professional success. Don’t go it alone on this journey! Surround yourself with people who lift you higher. Conclusion: Embracing the SEO Mindset for Success We've covered a lot of ground on cultivating the SEO mindset across those all-important personal, professional, and social realms. Let's recap the key points: Personal Growth By committing to lifelong learning, celebrating small wins, practising self-care, and having patience, you can stay motivated for the long haul. Don't give up! Professional ExcellenceInvesting in education, building technical skills, collaborating, and structuring your workday leads to next-level expertise! Keep honing your craft. Social Support Nurturing personal relationships, giving back to the SEO community, and connecting with colleagues provides invaluable support. We're in this together! By embracing this positive mindset, you can thrive in your SEO career. Will there be challenges along the way? Absolutely. But our community will tackle them together and learn from them. The future looks so bright for SEO professionals who are excited to develop themselves personally, perfect their technical abilities, and connect with others. There are tremendous opportunities out there for people with the right mindset. So, keep pushing yourself to grow every day. Stay hungry to learn, be resilient through setbacks, and enjoy the rewarding journey ahead. You've got this! Now go out there and start putting these mindset shifts into practise. Wishing you all the success and fulfilment on your path ahead! Frequently Asked Questions Q: What tips do you have for staying motivated when you hit an SEO plateau and rankings aren't moving? I tend to get discouraged when stuck. A: Plateaus happen to everyone in SEO! Focus on optimising other pages and assets, find quick wins like improving page speed, and remind yourself rankings will fluctuate. Stay persistent and have faith your efforts will pay off. Q: Do you recommend getting certified in SEO? Are they worth it? A: Certifications like HubSpot and SEMrush can add credibility and enhance your knowledge. Think of them as an investment in yourself! The structured learning is worthwhile if you put in the time and effort. Q: What SEO conferences are most worthwhile? A: MozCon and Pubcon are two of my favourites. Search Engine Land and State of Search also offer amazing learning opportunities. Attend conferences that align with your SEO focus. Q: For technical SEO, learn Python or SQL first? A: I'd start with Python since it has a gentler learning curve. Once comfortable with Python, move onto SQL for managing databases. But any SEO coding knowledge helps - keep growing your skills! Q: Could you share an example of an effective SEO mastermind group? A: The SEO Success Mastermind is a small peer group I helped start that meets monthly. We collaborate on strategies and ideas. Connect with me if you'd like an invite! Read the full article

[melbournenewsvine]

Upskilling in entrepreneurship the ticket to career boost

She describes it as a portfolio career. “A repetitive 9-5 job just never appealed or made sense to me, and I’ve always embraced the philosophy of life-long learning.” It’s a busy schedule, but the Melburnian wouldn’t have it any other way. Career boost These days, she plays many roles across the start-up ecosystem as an angel and venture capital investor and award-winning technology entrepreneur determined to use diversity as a catalyst. She’s the co-founder of edtech platform Future Amp, which features more than 100 interactive courses, helping students to build an employability profile and successfully transition from education to employment. She also tackles the embedded systemic bias in the start-up ecosystem that prevents large numbers of female founders from accessing capital, through direct investment, mentoring and education programs like girledworld, which she also co-founded. “I’m super passionate about supporting female founders and looking at how we celebrate, amplify and supercharge their success. It’s a much harder game for female founders to get the funding they need.” Grummet has also built an impact-driven investment portfolio with Flying Fox Ventures and Startmate. It includes more than 30 companies and continues to grow, accelerating opportunities for entrepreneurs to get their early stage ventures into the market. Returning to study to hone her career path once she had spent time in the corporate world made perfect sense, she says. “I could see that the entrepreneurial path was much more aligned to my interests around innovation and social impact, so I jumped at it,” she says. Grummet co-founded the mentoring and education program, girledworld.  An innovation agenda The Master of Entrepreneurship is now the perfect fit for even more innovators with the addition of an ‘intrapreneurship’ stream, defined as innovating within large companies. Formal entrepreneurship skills encourage you to test an idea, learn from feedback, make judgements based on evidence and select options for further development with industry, academics and peers. Co-delivered by the University of Melbourne and Wade Institute of Entrepreneurship, the program is best suited for innovators who want to change the status quo, and the problem solvers who harbour dreams to commercialise their ideas. It’s also an eye opener for those who want to generate new opportunities for established companies needing an innovation injection. Grummet says: “It’s a program for people with a unique mindset driven by curiosity, embracing challenges and who aren’t afraid to stumble.” These are the people building the engines of our new workforce. “Home-grown start-ups are playing a critical role in generating new jobs and forging new paths into industries for Australia, which is central to our innovation agenda, and transition to a technology-enabled digital economy.” “Entrepreneurship encapsulates many of the skillsets and qualities needed to succeed in business today, including innovative thinking, continuous problem solving and change management within enterprise organisations,” she says. This is a program that’s increasingly relevant in the volatile period of time we find ourselves in now, where change is all around us. It gives students the skills to find problems, spot opportunities, build solutions and pivot fast, which we’ve learned are critical to survival in business, Grummet says. “There’s no way I would have been able to achieve the scale and impact I have in my career without further study in entrepreneurship. It’s a program for people who want to innovate, build, iterate and solve real world problems. It has been the catalyst for building solutions to the change I want to see,” Grummet says. The University of Melbourne’s Entrepreneurship suite of programs are designed to give you the latest design thinking principles, tools and techniques of entrepreneurship, open Semester 1, 2023. Source link Originally published at Melbourne News Vine

[vergess]

@autismserenity​ said: Your tags are the most American thing I’ve ever read, we are truly so screwed here   

May I interest you in a more complete, and more excruciating, explanation of what I spent the last 18 months doing?

It is, I need to emphasize, fucking nasty. Don’t feel obligated, especiallly if you’ve already had A Day(tm).

There’s a lot of disease, a lot of worker abuse including sexual and racial abuse, a fine portion of letting people die for not being white enough for real medical care, all leading to homelessness.

For NDA reasons, because my former employer was just as vile as any tech company has ever been, I cannot be super specific about who I worked for. However, I can say that we handled the records and patient contact for all COVID testing for several states, as well as 2 of the 5 largest metros in the US, and several dozen smaller ones ranging from the approximate population of San Francisco, down to little towns, as well as the testing for several public school systems and at least two government agencies that I am not at liberty to disclose.

I tell you this for a sense of scale. When I say shit like, “my boss was more than happy to let thousands or hundreds of thousands die” I am not exagerrating for effect. We handled hundreds of thousands of tests a week.

Again, I need to emphasize, government agencies. Ones you would know if I named them. Ones everyone in the country knows.

And we were in charge of getting their test results from the already over swamped labs back to the patients, who often were not allowed to quarantine while awaiting results.

The fastest we got our turnaround time to on any consistent basis was about 30 hours. Often it ballooned well into weeks.

There were a number of factors for this, but the big one was always understaffing.

The staff we did have were treated like trash. One of the big selling points of this company is how “trans friendly” it is to work there. That is a lie. Every trans employee on payroll had their dead name displayed to all other staff, and until I personally changed the system setup on my arrival, patient facing trans people’s dead names were displayed to patients.

Remember that thing about “hundreds of thousands of tests a week”?

I was able to change the way patient-facing names were displayed. I was not allowed or able to alter the way internal systems displayed trans people’s names. But I was assured that it’s fine, because once you get a legal name change, you’ll be given new system accounts with your new name!

Your old accounts with your dead name would still be displayed and associated with the new ones though.

This is the “trans friendly” working environment. We were allowed to be out of the closet, as long as we were willing to put up with that. And any attempts to get it altered were the result of those nasty little transgender ingrates not being thankful enough.

Meaning that by asking to use our own fucking names we were already in the disciplinary shitter.

Another big selling point is the ~racial diversity~. The CEO was a man of colour, and so were like four other people on staff!! Wow!!!!!!!

This, too, was laughable.

Once numbers started coming in about the care gap for COVID between English and Spanish speakers, and our Southwestern US service area began to have a separate and brutal backlog just of Spanish speaking patients, my employer encouraged me to interview potential hires who speak spanish.

Fair enough! We all wanted to do our part to help close the already massive mortality gap.

So, I found candidates, did interviews, hired them, trained them, etc. But I don’t speak Spanish. As a result, I appointed 2 assistant managers who do speak Spanish to assist me in managing, you know, like the job name.

So when my super contacted them directly, completely skipping me on the chain of command, and told them to stop all of our Spanish speakers from translating helpful simple messages to send to patients, and instead start translating medical and legal documents, they very reasonably assumed I was in the know and went ahead with it.

TO BE CLEAR, that could have ended my life, theirs, basically everyone involved. Everyone in the company would have been completely fucked. At that point, my subordinates, the people for whom I am wholly responsible, were doing everything from practicing medicine without licenses, to encouraging spanish speaking patients to enter contracts that no one on the fucking executive tier could even read.

The moment I found that out, I and the A.M.s immediately started trying to get actual medical translation services to do our documents. We collected them in a neat folder. We queried translation services. We got quotes. We contacted my super and the CEO, about this over and over again for months. In the late autumn, we received approval for one of the translation services.

The CEO decided at the last minute that having people with no medical or legal training draft medical and legal forms was fine and good actually, and refused to sign the contract or send the documents for translation.

The excuse I received was that the COVID emergency HIPAA relaxations would protect us.

That’s not how that works.

Throughout all of this, Spanish speaking employees were told to either keep doing medical and legal translation work, or lose their jobs.

Oh, did I mention everyone was working between 30 and 80 hours a week, and all of us were marked as “contractors” so the employer could tax evade? Don’t worry, we filed complaints with the labour bureau.

So the entire department was let go, and “rehired” as temps through a temp agency, which because it was a temp agency could keep them marked as contractors regardless of the facts.

This change was presented to all of us, myself included, as the company getting a new accountant to handle payroll.

So if you’re keeping score, we’ve covered racism, queerphobia, medical negligence, fraud, and a frankly uncountable number of deaths.

Let’s talk about the sheer negligence towards employees ourselves. If you’ve worked in near-death medical care before, or any number of emergency services really, you know that the standard benefit suite includes either a dedicated therapist for your staff, or access to peer support groups with other emergency and medical servants through your employer’s benefits program.

Do you know what our mental health benefits were for this company?

The CEO got on a fucking zoom call with us all one (1) time, and said that if we were feeling suicidal or traumatized by the work, to talk to him about it, and he would be our therapist.

Do you know how many people per fucking day we had to contact only to be told they had already died because our understaffing delays killed them? He doesn’t. He never listened when we told him.

But let me put the cherry on the “Oh baby, you can talk to me, oooh” sundae.

Anyone who “looked” or “sounded” female, regardless of actual or assigned gender, was subject to constant flirtations and slimy, overly personal compliments about our appearances. Fortunately, at 3 levels removed from the CEO (Executives > Department heads > Managers > Employees), most of the people under my management had relatively little contact with him.

I was not nearly so lucky.

The CEO of this company has a watersports (urination) fetish. I know this, because he told me so and attempted to get me to join him in it. I have no idea how many other people in the company he did this to. I mean, what the fuck was I supposed to do, risk losing my job to find out? I have a fucking family to support, people.

Not that it mattered.

Eventually, all of these abuses became too much for my subordinates. Productivity fell off a cliff. Delays were getting worse and worse. In a medical emergency like this, delays=deaths.

So, like a fucking idiot, when the department heads reached out to me to ask what they could do to improve productivity, I shot down their frankly insulting suggestion of raffling a $20 amazon gift card to patient facing employees, and instead suggested a very simple, “enroll us with a peer support group, every single person in this department has PTSD from working in this pandemic.”

They were confused by my assertion of PTSD. I was asked to compile a document of complaints, concerns, and weaknesses in our patient facing services.

I and the A.M.s did so. It was roughly 40 pages long, with each page given a known problem, the reasons why it was a problem, and some potential solutions that might inspire further solutions or be able to be implemented. We submitted it. There was no response.

A week passed.

I had been working 80 hour weeks for most of a year. I hadn’t even been able to take weekends. I took my first sick day, in a company with “unlimited vacation days.”

I received a call at 3PM.

I had been fired for “differences in communitcation.” If you’ve ever seen that “Problem Women of Color in the workplace” chart? Yeah.

So had most of my department, including every transgender member of the department, and several of our extremely limited in supply Spanish speakers, who were presumed to be “on my side.”

Some of them, I barely even knew beyond the formalities of the job, and they were punished anyway.

I lost my insurance, and as a result I lost access to my medications.

But the real problem? I lost my house. And not due to lack of payment.

I lost my house, because when I got the job we waited 6 months for stability’s sake, and then readied to move out of the area. I got a mortgage on the basis of my employer’s written guarantee to the bank that I would continue to be employed for the next year at a minimum.

With the mortgage approval in hand, we entered a sales contract on our existing home.

We got and accepted an offer just days before I was fired. To keep our house meant paying a 25,000 dollar broken contract fine. We didn’t have that. We had a 10% down payment for a modest fucking place in a cheaper area, which is less than half that.

But without a job, my mortgage approval was also voided, meaning we couldn’t buy a house either.

All of a sudden, we were homeless during the plague, because my employer wrote and signed a letter to a bank guaranteeing my future employ, and then changed his mind when too many people died due to his own negligence.

Oh yeah, one last thing: the job paid less than Pandemic unemployment Assistance.

...After that, well, it’s homelessness until just last month. I... if you’ve never been homeless it’s.

It blurs. Everything is happening constantly, except for all the ways in which you are endlessly, mind breakingly bored. Bored, overloaded, and always uncomfortable.

Obviously my health would have declined regardless. Malnutrition, stress, everything.

But I was also unmedicated.

It was hell. I was in hell. I don’t know if I can recover from it, to be honest.

I bounced back from being homeless as a child. Children are as resilient as they are stupid, and the monstrosity of homelessness was little more than a vaguely remembered loathing and a panicky fear that it would ever happen again.

A child who is dying is worthy of sympathy, even if it is meaningless coos from passers by. If they have family, they may be able to rely on them too.

An adult with the indignity to die homeless and crippled, according to the average passer by, is worthy only of disgust and perhaps even punishment for being such a worthless waste.

My reward for nearly killing myself in a desperate bid to help stem the tide of COVID was the destruction of not only my life, not only my entire family’s lives, but the lives of every single family of every single employee who worked with me.

And you know what’s worse?

Each one of us still did more to limit the lethal impact of COVID than the entire united states government.

It breaks something in you, going through that.

It makes you realize that hope is a fool’s game.

But, I have ever been a fool, and so, I continue to play.

[princejaron]

It’s Not Easy For Gen Z

"They are perhaps the most brand-critical, bullshit-repellent, questioning group around and will call out any behavior they dislike on social media.” 

- Lucie Greene

     Born between the years 1997 and 2012, Generation Z is described as being more racially and ethnically diverse than any previous generation. Moreover, it is said that they are on track to be the most well-educated generation yet. I believe that this is proven true with the following statistics:

77% of registered U.S voters ages 18-23 do not approve of Donald Trump’s presidency. Gen Z is not afraid to speak up about a corrupt government that does selfish political acts. Similarly here in the Philippines, a huge percentage of the Gen Z population do not approve of Duterte’s presidency, especially with how he handles the present pandemic. I’m proud to be a part of that huge percentage as I do not like to be politically ignorant with how the Philippine government is acting despite the drastic increase in COVID19 cases quotidian. Implementing the Anti-Terrorism Bill, shutting down ABS-CBN, allowing foreign nationals to enter the country starting August 1, and not implementing mass testing still are only few of the actions that prove his incompetency as president. #OustDuterte

Gen Z are less likely to drop out of high school and more likely to enroll in college. Despite the implementation of the K-12 program, Gen Z are still pursuant of their education. Even presently, despite the pandemic, they are doing online learning (if they have the resources they need to be able to do so) just so they can continue attaining their education. I am among the students who are currently doing online learning despite its newfangledness.

Gen Z are more likely to say blacks are treated less fairly than whites. Police brutality and racially-motivated violence was and is happening in the U.S. Racial discrimination is an issue that we still face up to this day, and many members of Gen Z are fighting in support of black lives. I personally am an advocate of #BlackLivesMatter as well, so I’m included in this fight against racism. ✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿

Roughly half of Gen Z approve of same-sex marriage. Moreover, they think that society is not accepting enough of those who do not identify as a man or a woman. Gen Z fights for the equal rights of members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and does not tolerate the injustices that the community face quotidian. I’m included in this fight for #LGBTQrights as well, especially that I am a member of the community itself. 🌈

     These are only a few, but you can deduce from these statistics that Generation Z is not just smart, but truly a “woke” generation as well.

     For myself, I’ve observed that the aforementioned characteristics of Gen Z are all applicable to me. By knowing the social issues that I stand for, it helps me to understand my strengths and weaknesses. What are relevant social issues that I’m unaware of or simply ignorant about? This allows me to be more socially aware of my surroundings and of the world, because I believe that today, we have this sort of innate responsibility to help others and fight for equality and justice. 

     However, despite all of this, Generation Z is facing a lot of challenges in today’s world. In fact, they have it hard and truly, it is not easy for Gen Z. 

The COVID-19 caused a huge decline in employment rate among Gen Zers. It is said that the group’s eldest members are graduating into a labor market that has been devastated by the global pandemic; there are fewer jobs and internships available for them. Resolution Foundation suggested that the pandemic could affect young people’s pay and job prospects in the long-term. Moreover, from another research, they also said that those who leave education for work during recessions suffer from lower employment rate and pay for years even after the event. All of this could mean that Gen Zers are highly prone to experiencing financial instability today and in the future. If this is the case, Gen Z will have to take alternative courses of action in order to survive in the expensive real world. They may resort to freelancing, or even doing business themselves. Nowadays, there are businesses that require little to no capital to operate, thus it is an option that members of Gen Z can take into consideration as their livelihood. 

Resources, especially housing, are only growing more limited and scarcer everyday. Economics says that resources are scarce, thus it should be used optimally. In our case, we can’t even truly optimally use those resources because they are hard to obtain. This fact is made a laughingstock by Monopoly when they made the “Monopoly for Millennials” with a tagline that says “Forget real estate. You can’t afford it anyway.” If millennials are experiencing this problem, what more for the younger generation, and the other generations to come? Our population is only growing every second, and cost of living is following suit. This is our reality now, but nevertheless we have to make do with what we have been given. Measly as though it may be, Gen Z will just have to be very resourceful.

Generation Z has to live on Earth in its current state - warm, polluted, and destructed by human activity. Did you know that in 2016, the World Health Organization said that 92% of the world’s population is breathing contaminated air? This is a scary situation to be in for the younger generation. It makes you wonder: what kind of Earth is in store for them? Will there even be an Earth for them and the next generations in the future? It is alarming, truly, that the younger generation is peering into an uncertain future because of how we are sucking the life out of Mother Earth for our own selfish gains. 🥀All of us should work together to conserve the planet that we live in. Even simple things will have a snowball effect, such as reducing our plastic usage and maintaining the cleanliness of our surroundings. Heck, not using plastic straws is still essentially a big help. #SaveTheTurtles 🐢

Generation Z receives a lot of discrimination from older generations because of the differences in opinions. Generation Z are often told that they are still too young to be vocal about rampant and prevailing social issues, and that they are still inexperienced to say and feel certain things.  Despite having already proven ourselves to others, our potential and capabilities are still being limited and underestimated by the older generations just because of our young age. But age is just a number, and it mostly does not prove anything at all. Moreover, Gen Z shouldn’t be trifled with. We have the passion to ameliorate the world, and to make a better life for everyone in the future. We are going to continue proving others wrong. We will show that we are a generation of hope. 

Lastly, because of their very technology-based lifestyle, it is mostly Generation Z that has to face the negative effects that social media brings. It is indubitable that social media is practically a part of their life; it is an important platform for them. However, social media can also be used as a medium for spreading misinformation, cyberbullying, harassing, etc. And these can cause damages to the life of a person that may even be permanent. That is why we have to be very careful with the things we say online, and never encourage and tolerate nefarious acts like those aforementioned. Let us try to make social media a safe online platform for everyone. 

     So what are my five key takeaways from these challenges? It is that the call to action is imperative; the time to act is now, and we need to take responsibility for effecting changes in the things that need to be changed. We have to make a better world materialize, and it is up to us to actualize it. 

1. Consider diving into the world of entrepreneurship. If we cannot find a job, let us be the one to provide jobs through operating a business. More businesses means more workforce needed. 

2. Be resourceful, and look for substitute goods if possible. Moreover, never forget to use the resources that we have optimally and not wastefully. We are a very innovative generation. Let us use our brilliant minds to come up with ways to reduce the scarcity of resources. 

3. Participate in environmental advocacies, and help take care of Mother Earth even if it is just through simple things. Mother Earth can survive without us, but we cannot survive without her. That is why it is important that we do not take her for granted before things are too late. Let us preserve the place that we call home for the future generations to come.

4. Do not mind the discrimination that we receive from older generations, and focus on what we can bring to the table instead. We are on track to be the most well-educated generation yet, and the older generations can’t ever dispute that fact. We have a lot to offer to the world, and we can be a beacon of hope for the future. We don’t have to keep living up to their standards, because sooner or later, we will be the standard. 

5. Social media will never not be a part of our lives. It is pretty much a need now because of its versatility and functionality in helping us with almost anything and everything. So we can use social media unsparingly, but let us never forget that we also have to use it wisely. 

    But ultimately, I think that the most important takeaway from this is that although life is not easy for us Gen Z, we have to embrace the hardships of it all and use it as a weapon of hope to fight against inequality, injustice, and hatred. As Lucie Greene described us, let us be “the most brand-critical, bullshit-repellent, questioning group” the world has ever seen. 

[plutonian-honey]

Fortuna (19)

Fortuna is the Roman Goddess of Luck, whether it be good or bad. She’s behind the expression, “What goes around comes around”. It tells us about how we approach luck and how we make it for ourselves. The house she is in may be where we feel and often are the luckiest however if she’s harshly aspected, it might be where we feel we fall short. To find your Fortuna placement go to astro.com and enter your birth details. Go to extended chart selection and type “19″ into the additional asteroids part and press go.

Fortuna in 1st house: I think this placement brings a sense that you yourself are a lucky person. People are very attracted to you and it also often brings fame. Happiness will just come naturally to you and you’ll feel as though nothing could bring you down. You don’t often worry about what anyone else thinks of you because you just naturally believe and know that people kind of admire you. However this can bring excessive confidence and narcissism. 

Fortuna in 2nd house: Financial success! You always seem to just cruise by in life. You very very rarely experience financial struggling and you are very good at saving money. You never are put in situations where you have to get rid of stuff or are evicted from properties. I believe this placement brings eternal financial stability but it can also result in the person becoming very cheap and mooching off others to avoid their own losses. 

Fortuna in 3rd house: Naturally intelligent and gifted. Your teachers all loved you in school and you were at the top of your class without even trying. You also have a great relationship with your siblings and they often offer to do things for you or help you with things. Your peers and neighbors naturally like you and you rarely experience any sorts of dispute with those living around you. Probably also a very good writer but this placement can bring a sense of laziness as the person grows up believing they don’t really need to try.

Fortuna in 4th house: Your home life is always a place of happiness and love throughout your life. You had a great childhood and always had the most expensive stuff. Your parents very likely bought you your first car or payed for you to do things like go to college, go overseas or go on holidays. They possibly gifted you property or expensive gifts as well as being incredibly supportive of everything you do. But this placement can bring a reliability on your parents and home to keep you afloat.

Fortuna in 5th house: The children in your life will be super guiding and beneficial to you. You probably won’t experience any problems with like childbirth or raising kids. Even if you don’t have kids, the kids that you do know will be close to you. You’re also very artistically talented and you’d make a lot of money off selling your artwork or doing art shows. People enjoy observing your work and probably would travel to see it. Dating will also come very easy to you and many people desire you.

Fortuna in 6th house: You experience a life with very minimal health problems. You never have problems with your employees or co-workers and you’re always physically fit to do anything. You succeed in pretty much everything that you try to do and tasks that others may struggle with come easily to you. You just always seem to know what you’re doing, even if you don’t. You wouldn’t experience many issues within your everyday life either, everything just comes easy to you.

Fortuna in 7th house: This is a super beneficial placement for partnerships whether it be business or romantic. Partnerships will always benefit you greatly so if you have this placement, it is very much recommended that you involve yourself in maybe a business partnership or work. Separations for you will always be smooth and easy. You also find it very easy to relate to those around you so you never struggle to understand others.

Fortuna in 8th house: This is another good business placement like you’d be naturally good at owning your own business or working in that field. You also will probably come into a very large amount of stuff whether it be property, money or material items through inheritance. You may also experience a life with very minimal deaths of loved ones. This is the kind of placement where this person will randomly receive a huge inheritance from a distant relative they never knew.

Fortuna in 9th house: You probably feel very religiously blessed as if your God is truly looking out for you and you’re very connected to your beliefs. There would be lots of travel in your life where you’d meet a lot of interesting people that will improve your life. You will learn so much more than you ever thought you could through the people you meet and places you see. You also see the deeper meanings in artwork and literature as well as being gifted in areas such as writing.

Fortuna in 10th house: You naturally will make a name for yourself as successful. Your life will be full of career gain and promotions. You probably find it quite easy to move up the ladder of employment. Your relatives will be very helpful when it comes to achieving your goals as well. You would probably make a very well liked politician.

Fortuna in 11th house: You never encounter any issues within your community or friends. You make friends very easily and very rarely are involved in any sort of drama. Your friends often love you and have you as the first person they go to in situations because you will help them.  People also often agree with your opinions and you have the natural ability to convince others that what you believe is correct.

Fortuna in 12th house: You are very focused on self improvement but it also comes easy for you. You experience pleasant dreams and many of your goals or wishes come true for you without you even trying. The secrets that you keep are yours and no one will expose you or them so you are able to trust yourself and others and people trust you. You probably also have a great memory.

[revida-recovery-center-newport]

Opioid Use Disorder Treatment in Tennessee

Are you or a loved one struggling with opioid use disorder? Do you want to quit but get overwhelmed by intense withdrawal symptoms every time you try? You’re not alone. Just under 24,000 people in Tennessee received treatment for a nonfatal opioid overdose in 2019, according to data from the Tennessee Drug Overdose Dashboard. ReVIDA Recovery® can help you overcome your opioid use disorder through medication-assisted treatment (MAT).

A Team You Can Trust

ReVIDA Recovery® promotes safe and healthy communities by empowering individuals to reclaim their lives from opioid use disorder. We are developing a premier network of outpatient recovery centers that deliver clinical excellence and industry-leading outcomes. We are committed to helping you and your well-being. Every day that you arrive at ReVIDA, we challenge ourselves to make your experience even better than your last visit. Throughout your time with us, we want nothing more than to build your trust in us.

Clinically Proven Treatment Options

ReVIDA Recovery® Newport offers a number of outpatient services, including:

• Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) with buprenorphine (Suboxone®)

• Structured outpatient programs

• Community resources

• Certified peer recovery counseling

• Family therapy

• Group therapy

• Individual therapy

• A care coordinator

• Linkage and referral to additional resources

MAT is an important part of our services because it has been found to:

• Improve survival chances

• Keep people in treatment

• Improve pregnancy outcomes

• Improve employment opportunities

• Lower opioid consumption

• Lower illegal activity

When you start treatment at ReVIDA Recovery® Newport, you will meet with three people:

• Your physician, who will write your prescription for buprenorphine (Suboxone®) and any other medications you may need relating to your mental health.

• Your patient care coordinator, who will likely be a nurse practitioner. This person will help you in building resources outside of the treatment facility. This includes helping you find job opportunities, education, extended therapy time, or anything else that will benefit you and your future.

• Your therapist, who will help you in answering the challenges you may face with your mental health from before treatment or during treatment. During meetings with your therapist, you will gain the tools needed to deal with things like trauma, family conflict, emotions, communication, goal-setting, and more.

Treatment for All Tennesseans

ReVIDA Recovery® Newport offers a structured outpatient program. This means that you can start your journey toward recovery from OUD without staying in a residential treatment center. We know that you need support in order to recover from OUD, but you also have responsibilities that you may not be able to put on hold for a lengthy stay at an inpatient facility. In your daily life, we know you’re busy trying to pay bills, maintain family responsibilities, and go to work/school. Every day you have to work not to fall behind. That’s why our meetings only last 15-50 minutes. We want you to be able to receive treatment and then get back to your busy day.

Get Help Today

Are you or someone you love suffering from OUD? You're not alone. We treat people every day who are struggling with the same thing in your community. We can help you recover at our buprenorphine (Suboxone®) clinic located in Newport, Tennessee. Reach out today.

[simply-shakera]

Top 100 Black Women In Canada - 2020

"2020, the year we celebrate our possibilities" - Rose Handy (Founder of CIBWE)

I could not have agreed more with the quote above. This year has revealed to us so much about ourselves and the world. We have been challenged, we’ve grieved, we’ve persevered, we’ve learned and still we rise. It is important through it all to celebrate ourselves, give ourselves grace, and remain open to the endless possibilities that life has to offer. It is further more rewarding when others recognize our efforts, growth and impact of our work too.

Last month I was notified that I was selected as Canada’s 100 Black Women to Watch in 2020 by CIBWE - What an honour! My heart is full and I am motivated to keep going!!! Although it has been a tough year for me both personally and professionally, I will continue to do my part in helping women unlock joy while building confidence through dance, fitness and culture.... even if it takes a thousand more zoom meetings!!

The Canada International Black Women Event (CIBWE) sets out to symbolize the boundless legacy black of women who are building in Canada and beyond through their achievements, leadership and successes.

CIBWE has a clear goal to:

Offer a unique platform where black women from different walks of life can meet to share, network, learn and celebrate

Offer an atmosphere to explore possibilities and connections

Offer an opportunity to share knowledge, experience and network.

Showcase success stories of accomplished Black women

Raise funds in support of scholarship program for young girls and young mothers in Makak, Cameroon

The 100 Black Pearls Gala 2020

On Saturday, October 17th CIBWE hosted a virtual gala where all 100 ladies, friends, family and supporters had an opportunity to come together and celebrate this momentous occasion. Here is a video of the speech I submitted for the event. Organizers pushed though technical difficulties and welcomed an inspirational keynote by Brampton councillor Charmaine Williams.

When You See It, You Can Be It!

Black women continue to blaze the trail in a variety of professions, roles and circles. Not only am I inspired by the exceptional leadership and talent and that Black Women display but I am sure the future generation of women will be too.

I would like you to meet four ladies who were also featured in this year’s CIBWE ceremony. Two I know personally and two I share community with by the powers of social media. Each are from different industries and backgrounds but what they all have in common is the amazing work they are doing in their respective fields. Know them - Support them - Amplify them!

Being a part of the Top 100 Black women to watch in 2020 seems unexpected. I believe that I am called to do the work that I do and I do it with pleasure so being recognized for the work that I do has truly been an honour.

I am currently the Executive Director for “CEE” - the Centre For Young Black Professionals, a charity organization with a vision to create an economy where Black youth can become financially prosperous, live high-quality lives and can contribute to the advancement of Canada. We do this through three distinct approaches: Trauma informed approach, Culturally relevant approach and Person centred approach.

When I was young girl I always thought that helping people was not going to make me any money and that I would not be able to ever make a career out of it. However, so what I would tell a teenage girl who wants to work in my industry is: that whatever you are passionate about doing and brings you joy can transform into a career.

I am incredibly grateful and honoured to have been recognized as one of the Top 100 Black Women to Watch in Canada for 2020. I am especially grateful because all too often, Black women and femme's labour are undervalued, exploited, co-opted and erased. As such, witnessing so many Black women being recognized has been inspiring. It is my hope that we continue seeing more diverse Black women being celebrated for all that they do.

I am a lawyer, writer, researcher and educator, with a focus on labour, employment and human rights law. I often work at the intersection of law, education and policy, ranging from law reform initiatives to legal education to legislative research. Currently, I am the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law's first ever Black Legal Mentor-in-Residence where I provide one-on-one and group academic and career mentorship to Black law students, as well as expertise in the development of supportive programming and anti-racism initiatives at the Faculty of Law.

My private practice centres Black (queer) women, femmes, non-binary folks, gender non-conforming folks, trans women and survivors of gender-based and sexualized violence. I offer a wide range of support, including supports that operate outside of legal systems and frameworks, for Black survivors in their respective workplaces. As an educator, researcher and writer, I also offer legal education, legal information, and advocate on their behalf in various capacities as a means to inform institutional, policy and systemic change as well as workplace culture shifts. As J Mase III so eloquently states, "there is no Black liberation without Black women & femmes". The advice that I would offer to a young Black person who aspires to work in the legal industry is: stay grounded and stay connected to your communities. There is a lot of pressure in law school, the legal community and the legal profession at large to conform. And for me at least, supporting my communities and working alongside them in the ways that I can, has nourished me in profound ways and has kept me grounded. Being connected to my communities is the reason why I remain committed to carving out space in the legal profession for Black femmes like myself who are practicing law in innovative ways.

Long story short: Dare to do law differently.

Samantha Photo Credit: Charu Sharma (https://www.charusharma.ca)

It feels very affirming to to be one of the Top 100 Black Women To Watch In Canada for 2020! It is an honour to be recognized for my service in Gender Advocacy, Community Engagement, and Social Entrepreneurship.  

I am the Founder of BLACK QUEENS OF TORONTO, which is a Toronto-based global network of Black Women. My personal mission is to curate an inclusive platform of empowerment and advocacy - reclaiming narratives and creating opportunities for partnership. BLACK QUEENS OF TORONTO provides me with the platform to support that mission by creating a space where Sisters lead, learn, share and grow in both personal and professional capacities. 

My advice to a teenage girl who aspires to work in Gender Advocacy is: find well-grounded female role models to be mentored by, and to create your own tribe of loved ones who support your aspirations and provide a safe space for you to grow with grace.

I am truly honoured to have been nominated and selected as one of the recipients of this award. It felt like it was a win for my community and those who have helped me along the way. After doubling down and working super hard for the last few years, it is motivating to be recognized, especially by women who are trailblazing this path, and who look like me.

My business is dedicated to helping organizations, small businesses and professionals engage with their audiences through live events. Whether that is a fundraiser event, an intimate conversation, a celebration, or a networking opportunity, I have had the honour to work with some amazing organizations making impact in their own communities. I've spent over 10 years working within the community-building space and it is a value that I truly believe in as a personal value and one that can be incorporated into business. Learn more about Minik Creations here. Through my expertise in my event planning business I have also been able to create a community myself, The Biz Mixer, that focuses on creating a space for creatives and entrepreneurs to connect, learn and grow with one another, promoting resource-sharing, collaboration and peer-learning. These are all values that I encourage my clients to do as well, and I actively facilitate them building relationships that will positively impact their initiatives. True relationship building is such a game-changer.

What advice would I give to a teenage girl who aspires to work in my industry? Make friends - and by friends I mean build relationships with talented individuals you can work with. Think about the people will consistently work with on every project ie. creative team (photo, video, audio), entertainment, decor and set design etc. Start engaging with those communities, find people that you connect with and create your own circle of influence. The stronger your circle the more successful you will be.

Thank you to the #CIBWE for building a beautiful platform to celebrate the work of such amazing women. I am honoured to be recognized as one of the Top 100 Black Women To Watch In Canada for 2020. This year has been tough for me both personally and professionally. Still I remain committed to the work that I do and continue to move forward with a heart of gratitude - moments like this remind me why. I dedicate this honour to my fellow arts and fitness leaders who have watched our industry suffered so much loss these past few months.

It want the Black community to thrive in all areas of life and I believe we all play a role in making this happen by utilizing our strengths and supporting one another. After following my vision, I started a business that encompassed my passion for dance, fitness and culture. In 2013, Carnival Spice was found and it provides fitness and entertainment with a Caribbean Carnival twist.

My mission for the company was to showcase Caribbean Carnival, its culture, and its performing artists. Our team is made up of aspiring dance artists who receive performance training, mentorship, and access to paid work opportunities. The platform has since grown to include yearly dance fitness programming and feature our global #SpiceFam community. Carnival Spice has brought positive exposure to Caribbean talent, customs, and culture. The company’s client list includes Toronto Public Library, Deadmau5, PWC, TTC as well as many other community and corporate organizations. We have also been featured on Cityline, CP24, CTV, Breakfast Television, and most recently on Season 12 of the Real Housewives of Atlanta episode 9: “A Whine of a Time”. Our masquerade presentations are such a refreshing approach to Caribbean Carnival entertainment. The experiences offer elements of education, fun and are appropriate for audiences of all ages. Many also appreciate the positive representation and connection to Caribbean culture that our programs and events create.

If I had to give advice to a teenage girl who aspires to work in the arts or entertainment industry, it would be this: Dear teenage girl, your talent is valued, you are beautiful and your ideas are valid. You have all the tools inside of you to achieve everything your heart desires. Success will require you to study your craft; train, read, and research! But most importantly, stay committed to the process. There will be a lot of “ NOs” and bumps along the way, but where you start is not where you will finish.

[sheistamararose]

It'​s Time To Stop The Cycle of Gender, Race, and Journey Judgement

I recently read an article written about Jewel Burks Solomon entitled "Why Venture Capitalist and Tech Founder Jewel Burke Always Has Two Jobs". This was not only a great read but a necessary one that poses what I feel are necessary questions for investors, employers, recruiters, or others who have ever been in a position to help someone grow to the next level. However, maybe questioned, judged, discredited, or discriminated against the candidate or person because they held more than one job or career at the same time. Like Jewel Burks Solomon, I am someone who has never held less than two jobs.

Throughout my career, I have been condemned because I have held more than one job at a time and because it seems that even though I have had multiple jobs, I've still at times struggled. As a woman of color, who was raised by a single parent in Auburn Gresham on the South Side of Chicago, I learned that if I did nothing else in this life I had to use my God-given gifts, work hard, and always try because no one was going to simply hand me anything. Knowing these truths, I have always tried my best to walk fearlessly through life because if I didn't, I would've never likely had any chance to reach my idea of success.

As a kid, you often don't realize what certain things mean until you live a bit. So growing up and experiencing what it truly means to be black and a woman in America or simply a black woman is not easy. Why? Because many of us come to quickly realize that life for us won't be on easy street and neither would achieving true peace of mind. Opportunities to get into the C-Suite will feel like you're trying to find needles in a haystack and watching your non-black peers get high paying jobs and promoted will feel like not only the norm but the thing to be expected as you sit and wait or have to take the risk to fight for what belongs to you. So, knowing what the data shows and having lived experiences where I have given so much yet still have been laid off, furloughed, and never promoted has caused me to feel that it's always been necessary to carry more than just one job or project whether as an employee or business owner. In many situations, this is frowned upon no matter how much you've accomplished. It is important to say this because I am not the only one who feels this way or has had these experiences.

What I have to say to those who have frowned at people like Jewel or myself is that when we as humans fail to take into account the reality of what someone's lived experiences might be beyond the experiences that they have had in the workplace or as a business owner and then we choose to say they aren't worthy of a chance or we take away opportunities from them because their experiences don't compare to our own or to what we believe should've been their journey, we feed into a destructive and systemic cycle that often keeps some our greatest talents and innovators lost and never to be seen.

This year is proving to be one that is showing us that we need to get a little uncomfortable and go against what has always been our nature. I know that doing one thing or having one job is not always the best or realistic thing for everyone. I have started businesses, mentored other entrepreneurs, co-workers, and started a nonprofit not just to provide service or business solutions but also to give myself and others a chance to achieve something greater. Data shows too often that women and minorities often earn less, receive less capital to support our entrepreneurial endeavors, and are also overlooked simply because of how we were born. It's time to not only ask ourselves why hasn't this changed but to actually finally do something about it for longer than just a moment in time.

[coopdigitalnewsletter]

7 Sep 2020: How Covid saved the high street

Hello, this is the Co-op Digital newsletter - it looks at what's happening in the internet/digital world and how it's relevant to the Co-op, to retail businesses, and most importantly to people, communities and society. Thank you for reading - send ideas and feedback to @rod on Twitter. Please tell a friend about it!

[Image: Photo by Gary Butterfield on Unsplash]

2030: How Covid saved the high street

The high street had been struggling for decades [grave voice]. Out of town retail parks and online shopping had pulled shoppers and spend away, and when the virus came along in 2020, everyone switched to online shopping. The end.

But is it possible to trace out a possible future in which Covid *saves* the high street?

Covid forced many organisations into Working From Home. The lockdowns paused lots of retail, with many unfortunate job losses and business failures.

Organisations learned that Wfh works ok, particularly if they avoid doing back to back video calls all day.

But because many towns are organised around commuting, shops and other commerce in urban centres were struggling. The Confederation of British Industry warned of ghost towns if offices stay empty, and the UK Government encouraged workers to get back to the office to save the “office economy”. Perhaps companies that had optimised for commuting and city-worker sales were most exposed: Pret A Manger cuts 2,800 jobs as sales sink to lowest level in 10 years.

Despite the government pleas, companies decide to delay returning to their office. “Fifty of the biggest UK employers say they have no plans to return all their staff full-time in the near future”. Recent research found that 9 out of 10 office workers want to continue Wfhoming in some way.

Companies start exiting big “head office” leases in big city centres. Capita to close over a third of offices permanently. Pinterest cancels plans for a massive San Francisco campus, citing remote work shift from coronavirus.

Organisations start switching to multiple regional offices. Eg: suburban bank branches find new use as alternate office space for staff reluctant to commute to big HQs in city centres. They find it more resilient, lower cost. The people costs (communication, co-ordination, productivity, team health) start to improve as organisations get better at it.

Large retailer and product brands move toward online-and-delivered shopping propositions. And shopping behaviour continues to shift: online is for things that you already know you want, or that you don’t need to inspect, or that need to be cheap. Offline is for things that you need now, or didn’t know you needed until you saw them, or for experiences.

Commuting drops because people are staying and working more locally. “Cities will not die, but their benefits could become more diffuse, with well-paid workers spread further into the rest of the country.” Their offline spend correspondingly stays more local. This means that local services and high streets see a regenerative effect, particularly where local authorities support reinvention rather than conservation. The high street is revived: a mixture of “convenient and now” and “experiential” retail.

The emptier central business districts in cities are eventually re-colonised by residential and smaller/independent retail. They eventually look like new high streets too.

Retail news

Asda is doing parcel collection and returns in 600 locations with To You. It’s not 100% clear whether it uses staff or is an automated locker thing, and it looks like it might be certain retailers/brands only. Finding new uses for existing space is interesting...

Amazon is trialling same-day delivery from Morrisons supermarkets - a trial in Leeds.

New apps use your phone to record your dimensions and recommend what size to buy at shops - it might be useful if the shop itself did this, tuning the measurement to their own sizing regime.

Price of single-use plastic carrier bags in England to double - 10p in April 2021.

Bread price may rise after dire UK wheat harvest.

Covid-safe cars

“To see the fast-food chain of the future, simply walk to your car, open the door, and take a seat. Because you’ve just arrived.” Fast food restaurants are redesigning for faster drive through and click and collect. Drive through was always about convenience, but these days your car is also a safe way to shop and a safe place to eat. If the car is a Covid-safe place, how will it be redesigned in future? How will towns and cities change so you can stay in your car?

Perhaps this is how: here’s a self-driving taxi with some interesting features. First, Covid safety: “ambulance-grade U-VC lighting”. Will this kind of thing will be used in all public transport in future? It would be helpful if shops and other public locations and forms of transport were able to visibly prove or demonstrate they were clean and safe. And maybe that UV blue (or face mask green?) will be the colour that signals “Covid-safe.

(The second interesting thing about the taxi was, the AI stuff: a careful separation between the self-driving bit and the safety bit. No doubt that is the Right Thing To Do but naively it sounds like they’re saying that there is a fair bit more work to do on self-driving.)

But if a car is *self-driving*, you might see shops that come to you. Convenient and safe.

Health news

Facebook just figured out how to make MRIs four times faster - the breakthrough, made with scientists from New York University, could transform medical imaging.

Amazon’s new $100 ‘Halo’ health band measures body fat, voice tone, sleep quality, and activity. Using AI “to help customers understand how they sound to others, helping improve their communication and relationships” sounds like great fun.

Spreadsheet error led to hospital opening delay - humans make mistakes.

Quoted

“Spoiler: it didn’t go to plan” - Co-op Digital’s Charles Burdett on launching a side project, Workshop Tactics. 

“Trying to know ourselves through platform data tends to yield partial and contorted accounts of human behavior that conceal platform interventions […] Measurement is thus a product of the social and institutional context”. Feels correct.

“Companies including supermarkets and fast food retailers must make full transparency of supply chains a condition of trade" - Greenpeace comments on a proposed UK law that would make it illegal to use products that fail to comply with laws to protect nature in those origin nations. (Imagine the depth of supply chain reporting needed.)

“Now it’s up to us to seize the means of computation, putting that electronic nervous system under democratic, accountable control.” - How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism (long read).

Co-op Digital news and events

Free of charge events at Federation house: 

Andy’s Man Club – Gentleman's Peer to Peer Mental Health Meet Up – Mondays 7pm 

Advance Careers UK – Kick Start Your Digital Career – 7 Sept – 8:30pm  

Giving back with CodeYourFuture – Meet Up – 8 Sept – 6pm 

North West User Drupal Group – Meet Up – 8 Sept - 7pm 

Carbon Coop – Beginners Guide to Retrofit – 9 Sept – 6pm 

What is Data – Panel Discussion - 10 Sept – 4.30pm 

HER+Data MCR – Meet Women in Data – 10 Sept – 6:30pm  

Motion North – Meet Up – 17 Sept - 7pm 

GM Responsible Tech Collective | Co-Production Roundtable, 27 September 2pm – This is a cross-sector community of organisations working to establish Greater Manchester as an exemplary region for ethical tech. Our very own Amity CIC, Noisy Cricket and Diverse & Equal will all be speaking around black tech and homelessness employment innovation. For more information, click here. 

Paid for events:

Invisible Cities - Online Tours of Manchester or Edinburgh – Various Dates & Times 

Mandala Yoga – Online Yoga Sessions - Various Dates & Times 

Tech Ethics – Meet Up – Various Dates & Times 

More detail on Federation House’s events.

Thank you for reading

Thank you friends, readers and contributors. Please continue to send ideas, questions, corrections, improvements, etc to @rod on Twitter. If you have enjoyed reading, please tell a friend! If you want to find out more about Co-op Digital, follow us @CoopDigital on Twitter and read the Co-op Digital Blog. Previous newsletters.

[easyfoodnetwork]

Undocumented Workers Hold the Restaurant Industry Together. Now, They Stand to Lose the Most.

WStudio/Shutterstock

The pandemic has left the country’s most vulnerable with nowhere to turn

This story was originally published on Civil Eats.

Prior to the pandemic, Reyes delivered food and washed dishes for a restaurant in New York City. Now, with the restaurant reduced to serving take-out, he’s mainly just doing deliveries and, as a result, making less than half the income he used to.

Originally from Teopantlán in Puebla, Mexico, Reyes is undocumented, but he pays taxes through one of the many untraceable, individual taxpayer identification numbers (ITIN) that the IRS has issued to people in hopes of creating a paper trail of their contributions to the government. Two years ago, this wasn’t possible, since he was getting paid cash, under the table, before he and his co-workers organized and filed a complaint with the Department of Labor.

He says he worries for himself, but also for all of his undocumented peers, who are more susceptible to exploitation than other restaurant workers. They face an array of challenges as a result of the increasingly dangerous combination of restaurant closures and Trump’s immigration policies. Undocumented people are also some of the most susceptible to infection by COVID-19, since many live in close quarters and multi-family dwellings.

“[Working at the restaurant] is hard because I have had to do some of the most difficult jobs that others don’t want to do. I had to clean up sewage that the restaurant is supposed to hire external services to do. But I fear losing my job, so I accept it,” he said.

“Some employers know first-hand the vulnerability of the employees. And they often exploit them.”

The amount of work he’s offered has also been inconsistent. The restaurant owner promises him work, only to wait days before calling him back in. “That’s the strategy he’s been using to terrorize us with losing our jobs,” he says.

Though New York City has created a $20 million fund to disburse cash payments of $400 ($1,000 for families) for up to 20,000 immigrants with both legal and non-legal status, that’s a drop in the bucket for the half-million undocumented people living in the city.

Reyes is just one of millions across the country who face similarly impossible predicaments. Three months since the pandemic first struck the U.S., over 8 million restaurant workers have lost employment — including 5.5 million workers in April alone. A large number of these newly unemployed workers are undocumented. The undocumented comprise 10 percent of all restaurant employees in the U.S., and as many as 40 percent in urban areas such as Los Angeles and New York.

Undocumented immigrants as a whole pay billions in taxes and a higher effective tax rate average than the top 1 percent of taxpayers (8 percent versus 5.4 percent).

And, as they often work in the back of house — as line cooks, bussers, dishwashers, and janitors — they’re largely invisible to the dining public. In reality, they’re the backbone of the industry. And yet, many are unable to obtain health insurance even though they perform backbreaking work day after day. Most didn’t receive a $1,200 stimulus check from the government, and they often fear getting tested for COVID-19 or obtaining care for fear of deportation.

And although several organizations — new and old — are working to provide financial and logistical support for these workers, they’re facing language barriers, privacy, concerns, and a host of other challenges.

“The restaurant industry often employs very vulnerable sectors of the population: seniors, women, people of color, the undocumented,” says Manuel Villaneuva, lead organizer for the Los Angeles chapter of Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United. “Some employers know first-hand the vulnerability of the employees. And they often exploit them, commit wage theft, and let them know psychologically that they’re replaceable.”

A Sizable Need

In California, Governor Gavin Newsom has initiated a public-private partnership to disseminate $125 million in disaster relief. Of the total amount, $75 million is allocated to the undocumented, out of work because of the pandemic and ineligible for stimulus checks and unemployment. The other $50 million, the California Immigrant Resilience Fund, is in direct aid to especially vulnerable communities, including the disabled. But when phone lines opened up early earlier this month, they became completely backlogged, ultimately crashing for many on hold.

Comunidades Indigenas en Liderazgo (CIELO), an organization dedicated to Indigenous language rights, is one of the nonprofit organizations that has received $200,000 of the CIRF to give $400 checks to 500 Indigenous, undocumented families from Latin America for financial relief. Of those, 50 percent work or used to work in restaurants.

“Undocumented migrants undergo a huge problem because they’re pushed out by their home country, escape here, and then [they] are criminalized,” says Odilia Romero, co-founder and executive director of CIELO. “Then, the pandemic happened. They’re at the bottom and the least likely to obtain any support.”

One worker who has applied for funds through CIELO is Federico, a former dishwasher at a Downtown Los Angeles restaurant. Originally from Oaxaca, Mexico, he and his wife, from Puebla, have lived in L.A. for over 30 years and have four children who are U.S. citizens, the eldest of whom is 26. Since being laid off, Federico has found a job sewing masks.

“The money is nothing compared to what I made at the restaurant because we get paid by the piece,” he told Civil Eats. “We are paid either 5 cents or 10 cents apiece. In order to make $40/day I have to make 800 masks,” he explains. His family is fortunately able to get the food they need through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

There are many nonprofits dedicated to restaurant worker relief aid, but the majority fail to specify whether they are inclusive of undocumented workers for fear of political polarization jeopardizing contributions. And for workers, supplying personal information in order to qualify for aid brings anxiety about being tracked by ICE.

“We are pretty scared,” admits Federico. “It’s a constant feeling, but we have kids so we always try to take care of ourselves so we can provide a better life for them. We are aware of our status so we try to just … live with being undocumented.”

Language Barriers

Another obstacle to accessing financial support is linguistic. While many support organizations do have Spanish-speaking employees, many who have emigrated from Mexico or Central America aren’t fluent in Spanish.

Stephen Murray, a Los Angeles chef who organized a Gofundme campaign for 38 undocumented workers with LA Kitchen Migrants, explains, “There are multiple Zapotec [Indigenous people from Oaxaca] kitchen workers who don’t even speak Spanish, let alone English. The same goes for workers from Guatemala, whom we have a lot of in L.A. It’s a huge barrier for them to find help.”

Damian Diaz, of Va’La Hospitality, a bar consultancy group, co-founded No Us Without You, a new nonprofit group in Los Angeles that runs a food pantry program supplying packages of food that feeds a family of four for one week. Diaz personally reaches out to each applicant in Spanish and asks them to fill out an easy questionnaire online.

“Every single individual has my direct phone number and I tell them, ‘If you have someone in need who fits the bill, give them my number.’ Once I get the completed questionnaire, they’re on queue,” Diaz said. So far, the group assists 350 families a week and it has no intention of capping the number.

In the long term, the only way out of this conundrum is to provide these workers with a path toward citizenship.

Another Round Another Rally (ARAR) is another nonprofit that was launched by bar professionals dedicated to assisting out-of-work hospitality workers, with the goal of disbursing at least 50 percent of the funds they raise (in $500 payments) to Spanish speakers. It’s funded by spirits companies and foundations, with Campari Group alone donating $1 million to their cause (other donors include Patron, Aperol, Tito’s Vodka, and Ketel One).

Catherine Rosseel, a Boston-based volunteer coordinator, says that at the beginning of the campaign, there were 1,500 English-speaking applicants, but only 100 were Spanish-speaking — a difference she attributes to a reluctance to share personal information on the part of undocumented folks.

“I had four of my [bilingual] friends volunteering to talk to these people. We took down the barrier of [requiring] the application online so people felt safe, but realized it wasn’t efficient because people were too scared to give out their information and the conversations went too long. The calls just kept coming, so we had to regroup,” Rosseel says.

Fortunately, a group of bilingual Stanford MBA students reached out, spurred by a class assignment to help a specific community during the pandemic. Together with ARAR, they came up with a more streamlined application process that involves SMS prompts and rapport with native Spanish speakers, among other tools.

“Just hearing that voice makes them a little bit more comfortable, and to feel like this is real, and not some kind of scam,” says Claudio Gonzalez, a first-year, Stanford MBA candidate.

Actually getting the funds to people hasn’t been easy. No Us Without You and ARAR have both had difficulties maintaining contact with applicants. There are no-shows and calls gone unanswered. “A lot of these families had cars initially,” Diaz said. “But they’ve had to sell their cars to make some type of money. Also, they might have stopped having phone service because they can’t pay their bill, so there’s a lot of [talking over] Whatsapp in order to make reservations and appointments.”

The pandemic has left the country’s most vulnerable with nowhere to turn, but it has also exposed the reality of razor-thin margins in the restaurant industry, and just how often these businesses rely on the labor of undocumented, “essential” workers who are often treated as disposable.

And as restaurants stay closed or reopen at 25 percent or 50 percent capacity, the future could be even more bleak.

Like many advocates, ROC United’s Villaneuva wants to see undocumented workers given wage replacement and rent forgiveness. But in the long term, he says, the only way out of this conundrum is to provide these workers with a path toward citizenship — a change that some say would be net a positive for our GDP and reduce our deficit.

“We need to revise the immigration system where people can qualify by showing they’ve been working, paying taxes, and they’ve not been a burden on the government,” he says, adding that the current rule requiring people to leave the U.S. to apply for citizenship often puts families in especially precarious positions.

“The process needs to be sped up and made it simpler, so they don’t have to gamble with whether they can come back or not,” says Villaneuva.

Some names of individuals in this story have been shortened to protect their identity.

• Undocumented Restaurant Workers Have Held the Industry Together. Now They Stand to Lose the Most. [Civil Eats]

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The pandemic has left the country’s most vulnerable with nowhere to turn

This story was originally published on Civil Eats.

Prior to the pandemic, Reyes delivered food and washed dishes for a restaurant in New York City. Now, with the restaurant reduced to serving take-out, he’s mainly just doing deliveries and, as a result, making less than half the income he used to.

Originally from Teopantlán in Puebla, Mexico, Reyes is undocumented, but he pays taxes through one of the many untraceable, individual taxpayer identification numbers (ITIN) that the IRS has issued to people in hopes of creating a paper trail of their contributions to the government. Two years ago, this wasn’t possible, since he was getting paid cash, under the table, before he and his co-workers organized and filed a complaint with the Department of Labor.

He says he worries for himself, but also for all of his undocumented peers, who are more susceptible to exploitation than other restaurant workers. They face an array of challenges as a result of the increasingly dangerous combination of restaurant closures and Trump’s immigration policies. Undocumented people are also some of the most susceptible to infection by COVID-19, since many live in close quarters and multi-family dwellings.

“[Working at the restaurant] is hard because I have had to do some of the most difficult jobs that others don’t want to do. I had to clean up sewage that the restaurant is supposed to hire external services to do. But I fear losing my job, so I accept it,” he said.

“Some employers know first-hand the vulnerability of the employees. And they often exploit them.”

The amount of work he’s offered has also been inconsistent. The restaurant owner promises him work, only to wait days before calling him back in. “That’s the strategy he’s been using to terrorize us with losing our jobs,” he says.

Though New York City has created a $20 million fund to disburse cash payments of $400 ($1,000 for families) for up to 20,000 immigrants with both legal and non-legal status, that’s a drop in the bucket for the half-million undocumented people living in the city.

Reyes is just one of millions across the country who face similarly impossible predicaments. Three months since the pandemic first struck the U.S., over 8 million restaurant workers have lost employment — including 5.5 million workers in April alone. A large number of these newly unemployed workers are undocumented. The undocumented comprise 10 percent of all restaurant employees in the U.S., and as many as 40 percent in urban areas such as Los Angeles and New York.

Undocumented immigrants as a whole pay billions in taxes and a higher effective tax rate average than the top 1 percent of taxpayers (8 percent versus 5.4 percent).

And, as they often work in the back of house — as line cooks, bussers, dishwashers, and janitors — they’re largely invisible to the dining public. In reality, they’re the backbone of the industry. And yet, many are unable to obtain health insurance even though they perform backbreaking work day after day. Most didn’t receive a $1,200 stimulus check from the government, and they often fear getting tested for COVID-19 or obtaining care for fear of deportation.

And although several organizations — new and old — are working to provide financial and logistical support for these workers, they’re facing language barriers, privacy, concerns, and a host of other challenges.

“The restaurant industry often employs very vulnerable sectors of the population: seniors, women, people of color, the undocumented,” says Manuel Villaneuva, lead organizer for the Los Angeles chapter of Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United. “Some employers know first-hand the vulnerability of the employees. And they often exploit them, commit wage theft, and let them know psychologically that they’re replaceable.”

A Sizable Need

In California, Governor Gavin Newsom has initiated a public-private partnership to disseminate $125 million in disaster relief. Of the total amount, $75 million is allocated to the undocumented, out of work because of the pandemic and ineligible for stimulus checks and unemployment. The other $50 million, the California Immigrant Resilience Fund, is in direct aid to especially vulnerable communities, including the disabled. But when phone lines opened up early earlier this month, they became completely backlogged, ultimately crashing for many on hold.

Comunidades Indigenas en Liderazgo (CIELO), an organization dedicated to Indigenous language rights, is one of the nonprofit organizations that has received $200,000 of the CIRF to give $400 checks to 500 Indigenous, undocumented families from Latin America for financial relief. Of those, 50 percent work or used to work in restaurants.

“Undocumented migrants undergo a huge problem because they’re pushed out by their home country, escape here, and then [they] are criminalized,” says Odilia Romero, co-founder and executive director of CIELO. “Then, the pandemic happened. They’re at the bottom and the least likely to obtain any support.”

One worker who has applied for funds through CIELO is Federico, a former dishwasher at a Downtown Los Angeles restaurant. Originally from Oaxaca, Mexico, he and his wife, from Puebla, have lived in L.A. for over 30 years and have four children who are U.S. citizens, the eldest of whom is 26. Since being laid off, Federico has found a job sewing masks.

“The money is nothing compared to what I made at the restaurant because we get paid by the piece,” he told Civil Eats. “We are paid either 5 cents or 10 cents apiece. In order to make $40/day I have to make 800 masks,” he explains. His family is fortunately able to get the food they need through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

There are many nonprofits dedicated to restaurant worker relief aid, but the majority fail to specify whether they are inclusive of undocumented workers for fear of political polarization jeopardizing contributions. And for workers, supplying personal information in order to qualify for aid brings anxiety about being tracked by ICE.

“We are pretty scared,” admits Federico. “It’s a constant feeling, but we have kids so we always try to take care of ourselves so we can provide a better life for them. We are aware of our status so we try to just … live with being undocumented.”

Language Barriers

Another obstacle to accessing financial support is linguistic. While many support organizations do have Spanish-speaking employees, many who have emigrated from Mexico or Central America aren’t fluent in Spanish.

Stephen Murray, a Los Angeles chef who organized a Gofundme campaign for 38 undocumented workers with LA Kitchen Migrants, explains, “There are multiple Zapotec [Indigenous people from Oaxaca] kitchen workers who don’t even speak Spanish, let alone English. The same goes for workers from Guatemala, whom we have a lot of in L.A. It’s a huge barrier for them to find help.”

Damian Diaz, of Va’La Hospitality, a bar consultancy group, co-founded No Us Without You, a new nonprofit group in Los Angeles that runs a food pantry program supplying packages of food that feeds a family of four for one week. Diaz personally reaches out to each applicant in Spanish and asks them to fill out an easy questionnaire online.

“Every single individual has my direct phone number and I tell them, ‘If you have someone in need who fits the bill, give them my number.’ Once I get the completed questionnaire, they’re on queue,” Diaz said. So far, the group assists 350 families a week and it has no intention of capping the number.

In the long term, the only way out of this conundrum is to provide these workers with a path toward citizenship.

Another Round Another Rally (ARAR) is another nonprofit that was launched by bar professionals dedicated to assisting out-of-work hospitality workers, with the goal of disbursing at least 50 percent of the funds they raise (in $500 payments) to Spanish speakers. It’s funded by spirits companies and foundations, with Campari Group alone donating $1 million to their cause (other donors include Patron, Aperol, Tito’s Vodka, and Ketel One).

Catherine Rosseel, a Boston-based volunteer coordinator, says that at the beginning of the campaign, there were 1,500 English-speaking applicants, but only 100 were Spanish-speaking — a difference she attributes to a reluctance to share personal information on the part of undocumented folks.

“I had four of my [bilingual] friends volunteering to talk to these people. We took down the barrier of [requiring] the application online so people felt safe, but realized it wasn’t efficient because people were too scared to give out their information and the conversations went too long. The calls just kept coming, so we had to regroup,” Rosseel says.

Fortunately, a group of bilingual Stanford MBA students reached out, spurred by a class assignment to help a specific community during the pandemic. Together with ARAR, they came up with a more streamlined application process that involves SMS prompts and rapport with native Spanish speakers, among other tools.

“Just hearing that voice makes them a little bit more comfortable, and to feel like this is real, and not some kind of scam,” says Claudio Gonzalez, a first-year, Stanford MBA candidate.

Actually getting the funds to people hasn’t been easy. No Us Without You and ARAR have both had difficulties maintaining contact with applicants. There are no-shows and calls gone unanswered. “A lot of these families had cars initially,” Diaz said. “But they’ve had to sell their cars to make some type of money. Also, they might have stopped having phone service because they can’t pay their bill, so there’s a lot of [talking over] Whatsapp in order to make reservations and appointments.”

The pandemic has left the country’s most vulnerable with nowhere to turn, but it has also exposed the reality of razor-thin margins in the restaurant industry, and just how often these businesses rely on the labor of undocumented, “essential” workers who are often treated as disposable.

And as restaurants stay closed or reopen at 25 percent or 50 percent capacity, the future could be even more bleak.

Like many advocates, ROC United’s Villaneuva wants to see undocumented workers given wage replacement and rent forgiveness. But in the long term, he says, the only way out of this conundrum is to provide these workers with a path toward citizenship — a change that some say would be net a positive for our GDP and reduce our deficit.

“We need to revise the immigration system where people can qualify by showing they’ve been working, paying taxes, and they’ve not been a burden on the government,” he says, adding that the current rule requiring people to leave the U.S. to apply for citizenship often puts families in especially precarious positions.

“The process needs to be sped up and made it simpler, so they don’t have to gamble with whether they can come back or not,” says Villaneuva.

Some names of individuals in this story have been shortened to protect their identity.

• Undocumented Restaurant Workers Have Held the Industry Together. Now They Stand to Lose the Most. [Civil Eats]

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[nextsteprecoveryasheville]

The Ocean of Recovery

Read the original post: The Ocean of Recovery fromwww.nextsteprecovery.com or read it below.

When we first arrive in recovery, many of us have just come out of the deadly and toxic waters of addiction.  We were drowning, and were fortunate enough to have received a life vest and a rope (from a friend, family member, or professional) and have now boarded the lifeboat of recovery.  We first present on the new lifeboat gasping for air, and terrified for our lives, looking back at the wake of destruction and chaos we have just emerged from.

Now we must learn how to swim.  But we can’t just jump into the deep ocean of recovery and expect to be able to flawlessly swim on our own. Most of us require swim coaches, or the knowledge and guidance of more experienced swimmers (12 step sponsors, mentors, professional therapists, peers in recovery, family and friends ) to learn the proper techniques of navigating the waters of recovery.  We often start in the shallow end of a training pool before trusting ourselves in deeper water.  This may look like residential treatment or extended aftercare and IOP services, which allow for greater safety nets, boundaries, and structured support and guidance while we learn to swim.  Many of us also continue to wear life vests (this could be continuing to take necessary medications, adhering to special diets, consistent exercise, daily prayer and meditation) which will help keep us afloat in the water.

After receiving some specialized instruction in swim techniques from more experienced swimmers and learning proper boundaries and knowledge of swimming, we make our way into the ocean of recovery (This could be finally transitioning to independent living for the first time in our lives, going back to school to further our education, or maintaining consistent employment).  Recovery is a beautiful and mystical ocean where we will discover so many amazing things and see sights beyond our wildest imaginations (we may travel to new countries, develop new hobbies, gain our family and friends back, meet a new significant other, receive a sense of inner peace and joy, and finally develop true passion and zeal for life).

As we become more experienced swimmers we may even wish to teach others new to the ocean of recovery proper techniques (through becoming a sponsor or mentor ourselves ).  This level of service to others is what keeps us fascinated and in love with the ocean of recovery, never wanting to look back to the old toxic waters of addiction we were once drowning in.  We must always be mindful of deadly sharks and creatures (unhealthy people) as well as strong currents or tides (unhealthy behavior patterns, and negative thought processes) which could carry us back to waters of addiction.

www.NSRofAsheville.org

www.ExtendedCareAsheville.org

[xlivethroughthisx]

The Rippling Impact of Suicide

Over Memorial Day Weekend, Congresswoman Susan Wild (PA) lost her longtime partner to suicide. This set her down a path to making change in the halls of Congress. She recently introduced two bills: the Enhancing Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Through Campus Planning Act and the Greater Mental Health Access Act. Today, she convened a roundtable event on Capitol Hill that included a panel of suicide experts that included Dr. Paul Sasha Nestadt (Johns Hopkins), Chris Maxwell (American Association of Suicidology), Fred Stokes (NFL Super Bowl Champion), and myself, with Mike Schlossberg (State Representative, PA) moderating. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, opened the event. There were also several other members of Congress in attendance, including Congresswoman Grace Napolitano (CA).

The event was slated to last an hour, but was so well-attended, and with an incredibly engaged audience, that it was extended an extra hour. While we had a pre-planned list of discussion questions to address, the time wasn’t there, and it made more sense to answer the questions posed by folks in the room.

I prepared in advance for the planned questions, and I think the content is still important, so I wanted to share my responses with the Live Through This audience.

Q: One of the common things that happens when someone tells their story about losing someone to suicide is that it empowers other to share their personal stories as well. It also sheds a light on how prevalent this has become. Do you agree that suicide is a public health epidemic, and how should that inform the way we address it?

A: I guess my question would be: it is a public health issue, but what is our goal in calling it an epidemic? Most mental health clinicians have zero training on suicide and their responses to suicidal clients are driven by fear or liability, which often results in suicidal people being locked up and traumatized by the people and systems that are supposed to help them. Hotlines are underfunded. Crisis centers are underfunded. People are being funneled into the prison system for having mental health crises. So I wouldn’t encourage even more public health messaging on the topic by calling it an epidemic without first addressing those funding issues, because right now public health is failing us.

Q: What are some common misconceptions about suicide that you’d like to clarify?

A: The CDC released a report in June 2018 indicating that 54% of Americans who died by suicide between 1999-2016 did not have a known mental health diagnosis. Instead, issues at play were relationship problems, housing issues, legal issues, substance use issues, financial issues. 

These are life events that can happen to any of us, and that can threaten our our wellbeing. Certainly there are intersections with mental health, but I think marrying suicide to mental illness closes off a lot of opportunities for people to relate to the issues and, honestly, it closes off a lot of opportunities for actual suicide prevention, too. 

When we focus on mental illness, we automatically allow people who have never struggled to believe it can’t happen to them, and it can. Adversity affects all of us. Trauma affects all of us. I think it’s imperative that we change the focus of our messaging.

Q: Loss survivors often express a sense of guilt. They wonder if there were signs they missed, or how they could have intervened. However, one of the things we are learning is that there often aren’t missed signs. What are some of the most common things you hear from loss survivors about their healing process?

A: Guilt is a part of the grieving process. We ask why, and we scour our memories for all the times we could have done something differently. Ultimately, the “blame” does not rest on the loss survivor. Not ever. The responsibility for the action belongs to the person it rests with. I have known people who died by suicide who did everything they were told to do—they sought treatment, they built coping skills, they had supports—but the pain was still too great. As those left behind, we have to grieve, and we have to accept that we can only do what we can do.

I do think there are almost always missed signs; I think that we usually just don’t see them because we haven’t been given the necessary education. Many of us in this field are here because we have been affected by suicide. We sought out the education after we were affected, and we dedicated ourselves to making change. Part of our job, then, is to commit ourselves to educating others in the hopes that they might be able to help someone in crisis in the future.  

Q: There are some who think that a person just needs to “get help” and after that, the ideations will go away. However, some attempt survivors sometimes describe suicidal ideations as a life-long experience that they’ve learned to work through. Can you discuss the importance of having lifelong access to mental health services?

A: In my experience, having spoken to hundreds of people with lived experience, suicidal thoughts occur more than once over the lifespan. They also occur on a spectrum—sometimes they’re worth talking through, sometimes it’s a true crisis. 

We’ve been sold a narrative: something bad happens, a person attempts suicide, they seek a specific, sanctioned kind of treatment, and they’re better forever. This isn’t true for most of us. The thoughts recur. Sanctioned treatment isn’t accessible to everyone and it doesn’t work for everyone. We need more clinicians, we need more clinicians of color, we need better access, and we need to be more honest about the recurring nature of suicidal thoughts so that we can encourage people to build supports and build better coping skills. But we also have to stop pushing therapy and education as the ONLY answers, we have to educate people on how to seek those treatments effectively if they do go that route, and we have to encourage people to seek out what works for them—especially if treatment isn’t an option. Leaving people in the lurch contributes to suicidality.

Q: One of the reasons people are reluctant to reach out about their struggles with suicide or a loved one’s struggle is the stigma that’s attached. Can you explain the different ways a person might experience stigma, and what needs to be done to overcome this?

A: From the lived experience perspective, there are a lot of hurdles and so many ways it can go wrong. If we tell the people in our lives, we open ourselves up to the potential for harmful feedback, like, "Pull yourself up by the bootstraps,” or, "Other people have it worse,” or, "But you have so much to live for.” If you open yourself up to an employer, you risk losing your job because there aren’t protections in place. If you open up in a time of crisis, you risk someone overreacting and calling the police for a welfare check or an active rescue, which could put a person acting erratically, or a POC, or a queer person in danger. Medical professionals have also been known to sometimes mistreat suicidal folks, from expressing resentment to administering forced treatment like physical and chemical restraints, which have the potential to further traumatize the person in need. All of this really depends on the compassion of the person whose hands you put yourself in—and whether they have training or experience with suicidal people, and whether they can avoid a fear-driven response and respect the autonomy of the person in crisis.

Q: What can someone do to support a loved one or friend who is struggling with suicidal ideation?

A: Talk to them. Ask how you can help. Rally around them. Do their dishes, make sure they eat, distract them. If they want to and can seek treatment, help them navigate the insurance system, help them find a therapist who might be a good fit for them, help make appointments. Check in regularly. Listen when they talk and validate their feelings, even if you don’t understand. Don’t react with fear and put them in danger. Always respect that they are a person and should be allowed to retain autonomy and maintain control of decisions about their bodies.

Q: What can government do to help prevent the prevalence of suicide?

A: Fund research. Fund training. Fund the development of training programs that address suicide from a person-centered perspective. By that, I mean include people with lived experience in the development of these trainings. We know best what helps us. Treat us like people who need help, rather than problems to be solved. Fund alternative approaches to care, like peer support. Mandate training for all clinicians who work with patients, from mental health professionals to medical professionals to speech therapists, occupational therapists, and especially teachers. Mandate suicide education in schools, starting from Kindergarten. In my work, I have encountered people who said they started thinking about suicide as early as 5. Not teaching them about it is not protecting them, it’s endangering them. We have to make suicide a regular conversation, beyond awareness campaigns. We’ve got to approach it practically, and we’ve got to stop ignoring it.

[coachingreviewsite]

Information That Will Turn Your Life Around!

New Post has been published on http://personalcoachingcenter.com/information-that-will-turn-your-life-around/

Information That Will Turn Your Life Around!

Below is an array of effective strategies as you begin your journey toward personal development, greater happiness, decreased stress and increased motivation. Here, you will find a discussion of personal development and some of the pitfalls that accompany it. By following the tips, you can learn the best path to a better you.

  Try keeping your task manager with you at all times. This can be in the form of a list on a piece of paper, a memo on a phone, or even a list you have online. Wherever you are working, try to keep it within sight or within reach to help you get your tasks done.

    Take time to think about what you want from life. Too often we get rushed into a path that we are really not interested in taking. For some people this might involve a parent pushing them into the family business. For others it might be peer pressure to drop out of school. Only you know what you really want.

  If things get to a place where you cannot handle them, seek help from someone like a therapist. They can help you to cope with your issues by talking them out and coming up with some solutions. It can do you a lot of good to talk to somebody who is not directly involved in your life; it can provide you with a clear perspective.

Everything Works Until It Doesn’t: How to Flow with Change

www.pickthebrain.com

"You're reading Everything Works Until It Doesn’t: How to Flow with Change, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you're enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

There comes a time in everyone's lives when things that you once used to rely on don't become as effective anymore.

You sort of outgrow the training wheels. The job you started out fresh and new doesn't challenge you anymore. The friends you had in college don't vibe with you any longer. The books you read don't give you any more new knowledge. You and your girlfriend have grown apart and you don't “click” like you should. This is what I call “things work…until they don't”. Everything's peachy until it isn't. The Myth of Forever Many years ago in the Western World (or America at least), people used to work for one employer their entire lives and live in one place their entire lives. You could expect to retire with a nice employer matched pension and for things to “just make sense”. This was the “American Dream”. This stability was a glossy sheen over the inherent chaos and turbulence that is life and nature. Nothing in nature stands still, everything is constant change. You, as a creation of nature are the same way. Things will (and must) change in your life. Dealing with this change is the key to unlocking new levels of meaning and nuance in your life. When people aren't able to accept change, they get tossed around like a leaf in the wind – unable to deal with calamity and chaos. Then, fear sets in. Then, hesitation. Then no action. Knowing When It's Time to Move On What are the consequences of not being able to “go with the flow”? Well, you get stuck. You specifically get stuck in situations you absolutely do not want to be in. I know this because this happened to me. I got hired for a job right after college. The job paid a nice salary for someone just out of college and I was learning lots of new things. About a year in, I stopped learning as much. I didn't get a raise because the company wasn't doing too well. It became unnecessarily monotonous. I had outgrown the position. I justified sticking it out because I was optimistic that things were going to get better, but I stayed another year. At the end of the day, I was getting paid, right? Well, came to an abrupt close. I got laid off 2 years after I started. Everything worked out in the end, but I could have prevented this by being willing to jump off an obviously sinking ship. The consequences of not moving on could be even more drastic in certain situations. You need the willingness, the discernment, the decisiveness to cut your losses and just move on. Moving on From Certain Ideas You not only have to move on from certain situations, but you also have to leave old modes of thought behind. Things you once cherished as absolute truth are now seen as half-truths or downright lies. These may be beliefs you have about yourself, about others, about the world, etc, that are holding you back from achievement in a certain area. You will only rise to the height of your belief system, also known as your paradigm. If you want to achieve success and especially earth-shattering, skyscraper type success, you have to leave old patterns and ideas behind. What are some examples?:

Believing you don't have the skills to change into a new line of work Believing that you don't have what it takes to attract the partner of your dreams Believing that the world is absolutes and black and white Believing that you need to work a 9-5 salaried job to make it in this world Believing that college is necessary.

The list goes on and on. These beliefs served you well at one time by helping keep you comfortable, but now those same beliefs have become very uncomfortable. Pulling the Plug Even When You're Scared There are times when you just know in your deepest heart of hearts that it's time for you to move on, but you just can't. You feel paralyzed with doubt, fear, and indecision. Here's some tips on how you can move on with your life and get past analysis paralysis. 1. Think of the Worst-Case Scenario Things are worse in our mind than they are or will be in reality. This creates fear which paralyzes action, meaning you'll never find out what will actually happen if you can take action. The worst-case of every action is that you will die. We're all going to die anyway, so the worst-case scenario really isn't that bad. In the interim, you may experience some degree of pain, but you still have a chance to achieve whatever it is you want to achieve and get out of situations that simply aren't working. 2. Think of the Best-Case Scenario Imagine what will happen when you have the courage to move out of a certain situation into a better one. Imagine yourself in a better job, a better relationship, a better way of life — if you took action. What would happen? Like before, you will experience some degree of discomfort, but it's in the pursuit of a greater good. 3. Be Flexible and Accepting When you move out of situations that aren't helping you, there will be a rough adjustment period. Accept it as part of the process. Once you do, the better off you'll be in adopting the changes to your new lifestyle. 4. Understand it's necessary The final crux to everything is changing your worldview and how you view things is absolutely necessary at some point in time. You cannot stay the same forever. Having the willingness to change makes everything 10x easier.

Sim Campbell has made it his mission to examine what it means to live an expansive and fulfilling life in the modern world as an emerging young man. He talks about this on Unstoppable Rise, a site dedicated to relentless personal development with a strong philosophical slant. You've read Everything Works Until It Doesn’t: How to Flow with Change, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you've enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles." https://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/everything-works-until-it-doesnt-how-to-flow-with-change/

Don't be afraid to teach! Teaching others, whether it is teaching a child to tie their shoe or teaching a colleague at work to operate a new piece of complex machinery, is empowering. We don't have to be experts ourselves to be ready to lend a helping hand when someone needs it.

  You should get plenty of exercise. Over the years, studies have shown that exercise increases serotonin in the brain. This can make you a happier and more energetic person overall. It's also great for your body image and can make you think more positively about yourself, which is great for depression.

  Help others! Learn CPR and basic first aid skills through your local Fire Station or community center. By helping someone who is in danger or injured, you are also helping yourself. Helping someone will else give you a sense of pride, purpose, and inspiration. There's a chance you could even save another person's life, contributing to the fullness of your own life.

  If you are having difficulty coping with the effects of depression, you may find peace and guidance from joining a depression support group. Sometimes our friends and family members do not understand how depression can affect us; reaching out to a support group allows you to gain the support of people who are undergoing the same things that you are.

5 Simple Ways To Knock Out Stress

yourdost.com

"Stress. One of the most commonly used words in our everyday vocabulary. It almost feels natural to say, “I’m so stressed!” or “This is stressing me out!” since every one of us experiences varying levels of stress at different points in our lives. If you’re not sure how stressed you are, check out the 7 signs that …" http://yourdost.com/blog/2019/08/5-simple-ways-to-knock-out-stress.html

Keep a journal. When you embark on a journey towards personal development, make sure you record all of your thoughts, feelings, and ideas. Not only will it be a joy to look back on when you reach your goals, but it can be a useful tool if you find yourself going astray. You can look over your journal and find what led you to where you are and see exactly how to get back on track.

  To access your subconscious mind and find hidden solutions to your problems and questions, write in your journal each night before bed. Write about your day and ask yourself, in writing, how you might have improved problematic situations. Once you have written your questions, let them go. Your subconscious mind will unravel them overnight and may present you with an answer in the morning!

  For many people, retreating from a conflict is the standard response. Unfortunately, this habit does nothing to resolve the problem or prevent similar issues in the future. Try to practice keeping yourself in the conflict while continuing to engage the other party with questions that can help to resolve the problem. Unlike simply retreating and giving someone the famous "cold shoulder", this approach forces you to work through your concerns and avoid creating further resentment.

  Take half an hour and write out every good quality you feel you have. It's important to understand who you are as a person. What are your key characteristics that you feel you exude? You will want to increase the level at which you offer those good qualities to the world. By writing them out, you are essentially beginning an action plan for personal development.

Find Your Ideal Job and Build Your Dream Business

www.leadershipnow.com

"IS IT POSSIBLE  to have your cake and eat it too? If there was a way to find your ideal job and build your dream business, would you consider both? Most people see this dichotomy and feel that they need to choose one dream over the other. The reality is that you can have both dreams so long as each doesn’t harm the other and enhances your lifestyle. Having worked with more than 10,000 entrepreneurs, innovators, inventors, hobbyists and side hustlers, they often struggle with when it is appropriate to leap from the job environment into the entrepreneurship maze. The presumption is that one has to sacrifice entrepreneurial dreams in order to be successful at a specific career choice. The truth is that you can have both and I strongly encourage aspiring employee-preneurs to review the following five reasons to consider maintaining your job in the first few years of building your business. 1. Learning from Both Work Environments: When you work as an employee and have a side entrepreneurial business, you can learn from both environments and both environments can benefit from each other. Often the entrepreneurial pathway is a lonely pathway and sole-preneurs in particular find themselves trying to navigate, learn and network to gain knowledge while building their business. Realizing that you can gain education from both environments allows an opportunity for you to thrive as an employee and manage a successful side hustle. 2. Business Ownership Strengthens Your Employee Net Worth: In most positions you rarely get the opportunity to experience the functions associated with the roles of a Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Marketing Officer, as well as manage the day-to-day requirements for customer engagement and retention. As a result of limited job functions in a large corporate environment, it doesn’t give you the full breadth of work involved in successfully managing an enterprise. By exploring the entrepreneurship maze you will quickly immerse yourself in all these functions, which will give you a better picture of the business itself, as well as an appreciation for the company that employees you. 3. Position Yourself with a Better Financial Portfolio: Quitting your job and then applying for a small business loan is a recipe for disaster. Often lenders expect borrowers to be fully collateralized. Having a successful employment position strengthens your probability of obtaining a loan or line of credit. While there are a lot of targeted small business funds that don’t require full collateralization, obtaining funds from your financial institution will be challenging if your debt to equity ratio does not meet their criteria and you don’t have a secondary source of income they can secure against the loan. In addition, being employed allows you the flexibility of investing in your small business without the stress of adding more debt into your current financial portfolio. Having the availability to set aside a few hundred dollars each month towards your business is significant when you have to consider paying for licensing, website development, social media support, etc. 4. Don’t Put Your Financial Eggs in One Basket: Diversifying your income allows you to mitigate financial risk and maximize your ability to make more money. Most people rely on their employment position for sole source income and if that position is compromised they may have a difficult time replacing those funds in a short period of time. Creating other opportunities to generate more money provides an additional financial cushion for investments or as an emergency fund program.  The key is to target business concepts that don’t impose too much time on your part but produce a sizable financial return on your investment. Examples may include selling products online, starting a consulting business, or purchasing a semi-absentee franchise opportunity. 5. There Is No Need to Rush the Process: Most entrepreneurs believe they have to rush things to launch a company because they may lose out on the business opportunity. This may actually be a recipe for disaster. Rushing into a business concept without a proper feasibility review including competitive research, market analysis, and customer input is rushing to an unproven plan. Spending time building the foundation of the business allows for validation and a chance to identify the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats of the proposed concept. Once the business has reached a certain consistent income you can decide whether to leap into the business full-time or hire others to manage the business. Ironically many of the Fortune 500 companies today began with entrepreneurs that started their business concept while working for an employer and then transitioned to their business slowly. Skin in the game does not mean you have to quit a job to explore a business. It means you have to be willing to invest time, money, or both in order to build your side hustle into a fledging small business operation. The great news is you don’t have to sacrifice either opportunity to benefit from both opportunities. You can have your cake and eat it too. * * * Kedma Ough is the author of Target Funding: A Proven System to Get the Money and Resources You Need to Start or Grow Your Business. One of today’s most respected authorities on small business funding and entrepreneurship, she is a nationally renowned business coach and funding expert and winner of the Small Business Administration (SBA) Small Business Champion of the Year Award.  As a small business consultant and educator, she has guided more than 10,000 individuals through a wide range of business advising and is a past contributing writer for Entrepreneur Magazine. When she is not running around as a live superhero, she enjoys time with her family and traveling the world. Ough is a proud fifth-generation entrepreneur. * * *   Like us on Instagram and Facebook for additional leadership and personal development ideas. * * *" https://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2019/08/find_your_ideal_job_and_build.htmlhttp://www.leadershipnow.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-atom.cgi/weblog/blog_id=1/entry_id=1751

Look at the changes you will need to make on a daily basis and actions you need to take daily in order to reach your goals. Turn those actions into daily habits. Once you get used to doing the same action daily it will make your goals easier to reach over time.

  To healthily administer self help in regards to bipolar disorder, make sure that you establish a daily schedule and stick to it. This is important because it removes any stress that is caused by uncertainty in your life. Having a schedule will help to put your overall life in order.

  Do not dwell on your problems. Think about the solutions for them. If you are constantly thinking about all of the things that are wrong in your life you will not find any happiness. If you take the time to think about how to resolve those problems you will eliminate them altogether.

  You must be able to concentrate and focus if you plan on being successful in this life. No one can make it in this world by just talking and offering opinions all the time. You must be able to listen, and you must be able to take time to learn about new things in a concentrated manner.

  As you seek for a better tomorrow, the information here can assist you in making your dreams a reality. Holding onto your education, motivation and essential strategies help you make a concrete plan and stick to it; without such structure, moving forward may be more difficult than you can manage. By holding onto these strategies–and most importantly, to hope–you are setting your path toward a better, happier outlook.

[personalcoachingcenter]

Information That Will Turn Your Life Around!

New Post has been published on http://personalcoachingcenter.com/information-that-will-turn-your-life-around/

Information That Will Turn Your Life Around!

Below is an array of effective strategies as you begin your journey toward personal development, greater happiness, decreased stress and increased motivation. Here, you will find a discussion of personal development and some of the pitfalls that accompany it. By following the tips, you can learn the best path to a better you.

  Try keeping your task manager with you at all times. This can be in the form of a list on a piece of paper, a memo on a phone, or even a list you have online. Wherever you are working, try to keep it within sight or within reach to help you get your tasks done.

    Take time to think about what you want from life. Too often we get rushed into a path that we are really not interested in taking. For some people this might involve a parent pushing them into the family business. For others it might be peer pressure to drop out of school. Only you know what you really want.

  If things get to a place where you cannot handle them, seek help from someone like a therapist. They can help you to cope with your issues by talking them out and coming up with some solutions. It can do you a lot of good to talk to somebody who is not directly involved in your life; it can provide you with a clear perspective.

Everything Works Until It Doesn’t: How to Flow with Change

www.pickthebrain.com

"You're reading Everything Works Until It Doesn’t: How to Flow with Change, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you're enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

There comes a time in everyone's lives when things that you once used to rely on don't become as effective anymore.

You sort of outgrow the training wheels. The job you started out fresh and new doesn't challenge you anymore. The friends you had in college don't vibe with you any longer. The books you read don't give you any more new knowledge. You and your girlfriend have grown apart and you don't “click” like you should. This is what I call “things work…until they don't”. Everything's peachy until it isn't. The Myth of Forever Many years ago in the Western World (or America at least), people used to work for one employer their entire lives and live in one place their entire lives. You could expect to retire with a nice employer matched pension and for things to “just make sense”. This was the “American Dream”. This stability was a glossy sheen over the inherent chaos and turbulence that is life and nature. Nothing in nature stands still, everything is constant change. You, as a creation of nature are the same way. Things will (and must) change in your life. Dealing with this change is the key to unlocking new levels of meaning and nuance in your life. When people aren't able to accept change, they get tossed around like a leaf in the wind – unable to deal with calamity and chaos. Then, fear sets in. Then, hesitation. Then no action. Knowing When It's Time to Move On What are the consequences of not being able to “go with the flow”? Well, you get stuck. You specifically get stuck in situations you absolutely do not want to be in. I know this because this happened to me. I got hired for a job right after college. The job paid a nice salary for someone just out of college and I was learning lots of new things. About a year in, I stopped learning as much. I didn't get a raise because the company wasn't doing too well. It became unnecessarily monotonous. I had outgrown the position. I justified sticking it out because I was optimistic that things were going to get better, but I stayed another year. At the end of the day, I was getting paid, right? Well, came to an abrupt close. I got laid off 2 years after I started. Everything worked out in the end, but I could have prevented this by being willing to jump off an obviously sinking ship. The consequences of not moving on could be even more drastic in certain situations. You need the willingness, the discernment, the decisiveness to cut your losses and just move on. Moving on From Certain Ideas You not only have to move on from certain situations, but you also have to leave old modes of thought behind. Things you once cherished as absolute truth are now seen as half-truths or downright lies. These may be beliefs you have about yourself, about others, about the world, etc, that are holding you back from achievement in a certain area. You will only rise to the height of your belief system, also known as your paradigm. If you want to achieve success and especially earth-shattering, skyscraper type success, you have to leave old patterns and ideas behind. What are some examples?:

Believing you don't have the skills to change into a new line of work Believing that you don't have what it takes to attract the partner of your dreams Believing that the world is absolutes and black and white Believing that you need to work a 9-5 salaried job to make it in this world Believing that college is necessary.

The list goes on and on. These beliefs served you well at one time by helping keep you comfortable, but now those same beliefs have become very uncomfortable. Pulling the Plug Even When You're Scared There are times when you just know in your deepest heart of hearts that it's time for you to move on, but you just can't. You feel paralyzed with doubt, fear, and indecision. Here's some tips on how you can move on with your life and get past analysis paralysis. 1. Think of the Worst-Case Scenario Things are worse in our mind than they are or will be in reality. This creates fear which paralyzes action, meaning you'll never find out what will actually happen if you can take action. The worst-case of every action is that you will die. We're all going to die anyway, so the worst-case scenario really isn't that bad. In the interim, you may experience some degree of pain, but you still have a chance to achieve whatever it is you want to achieve and get out of situations that simply aren't working. 2. Think of the Best-Case Scenario Imagine what will happen when you have the courage to move out of a certain situation into a better one. Imagine yourself in a better job, a better relationship, a better way of life — if you took action. What would happen? Like before, you will experience some degree of discomfort, but it's in the pursuit of a greater good. 3. Be Flexible and Accepting When you move out of situations that aren't helping you, there will be a rough adjustment period. Accept it as part of the process. Once you do, the better off you'll be in adopting the changes to your new lifestyle. 4. Understand it's necessary The final crux to everything is changing your worldview and how you view things is absolutely necessary at some point in time. You cannot stay the same forever. Having the willingness to change makes everything 10x easier.

Sim Campbell has made it his mission to examine what it means to live an expansive and fulfilling life in the modern world as an emerging young man. He talks about this on Unstoppable Rise, a site dedicated to relentless personal development with a strong philosophical slant. You've read Everything Works Until It Doesn’t: How to Flow with Change, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you've enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles." https://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/everything-works-until-it-doesnt-how-to-flow-with-change/

Don't be afraid to teach! Teaching others, whether it is teaching a child to tie their shoe or teaching a colleague at work to operate a new piece of complex machinery, is empowering. We don't have to be experts ourselves to be ready to lend a helping hand when someone needs it.

  You should get plenty of exercise. Over the years, studies have shown that exercise increases serotonin in the brain. This can make you a happier and more energetic person overall. It's also great for your body image and can make you think more positively about yourself, which is great for depression.

  Help others! Learn CPR and basic first aid skills through your local Fire Station or community center. By helping someone who is in danger or injured, you are also helping yourself. Helping someone will else give you a sense of pride, purpose, and inspiration. There's a chance you could even save another person's life, contributing to the fullness of your own life.

  If you are having difficulty coping with the effects of depression, you may find peace and guidance from joining a depression support group. Sometimes our friends and family members do not understand how depression can affect us; reaching out to a support group allows you to gain the support of people who are undergoing the same things that you are.

5 Simple Ways To Knock Out Stress

yourdost.com

"Stress. One of the most commonly used words in our everyday vocabulary. It almost feels natural to say, “I’m so stressed!” or “This is stressing me out!” since every one of us experiences varying levels of stress at different points in our lives. If you’re not sure how stressed you are, check out the 7 signs that …" http://yourdost.com/blog/2019/08/5-simple-ways-to-knock-out-stress.html

Keep a journal. When you embark on a journey towards personal development, make sure you record all of your thoughts, feelings, and ideas. Not only will it be a joy to look back on when you reach your goals, but it can be a useful tool if you find yourself going astray. You can look over your journal and find what led you to where you are and see exactly how to get back on track.

  To access your subconscious mind and find hidden solutions to your problems and questions, write in your journal each night before bed. Write about your day and ask yourself, in writing, how you might have improved problematic situations. Once you have written your questions, let them go. Your subconscious mind will unravel them overnight and may present you with an answer in the morning!

  For many people, retreating from a conflict is the standard response. Unfortunately, this habit does nothing to resolve the problem or prevent similar issues in the future. Try to practice keeping yourself in the conflict while continuing to engage the other party with questions that can help to resolve the problem. Unlike simply retreating and giving someone the famous "cold shoulder", this approach forces you to work through your concerns and avoid creating further resentment.

  Take half an hour and write out every good quality you feel you have. It's important to understand who you are as a person. What are your key characteristics that you feel you exude? You will want to increase the level at which you offer those good qualities to the world. By writing them out, you are essentially beginning an action plan for personal development.

Find Your Ideal Job and Build Your Dream Business

www.leadershipnow.com

"IS IT POSSIBLE  to have your cake and eat it too? If there was a way to find your ideal job and build your dream business, would you consider both? Most people see this dichotomy and feel that they need to choose one dream over the other. The reality is that you can have both dreams so long as each doesn’t harm the other and enhances your lifestyle. Having worked with more than 10,000 entrepreneurs, innovators, inventors, hobbyists and side hustlers, they often struggle with when it is appropriate to leap from the job environment into the entrepreneurship maze. The presumption is that one has to sacrifice entrepreneurial dreams in order to be successful at a specific career choice. The truth is that you can have both and I strongly encourage aspiring employee-preneurs to review the following five reasons to consider maintaining your job in the first few years of building your business. 1. Learning from Both Work Environments: When you work as an employee and have a side entrepreneurial business, you can learn from both environments and both environments can benefit from each other. Often the entrepreneurial pathway is a lonely pathway and sole-preneurs in particular find themselves trying to navigate, learn and network to gain knowledge while building their business. Realizing that you can gain education from both environments allows an opportunity for you to thrive as an employee and manage a successful side hustle. 2. Business Ownership Strengthens Your Employee Net Worth: In most positions you rarely get the opportunity to experience the functions associated with the roles of a Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Marketing Officer, as well as manage the day-to-day requirements for customer engagement and retention. As a result of limited job functions in a large corporate environment, it doesn’t give you the full breadth of work involved in successfully managing an enterprise. By exploring the entrepreneurship maze you will quickly immerse yourself in all these functions, which will give you a better picture of the business itself, as well as an appreciation for the company that employees you. 3. Position Yourself with a Better Financial Portfolio: Quitting your job and then applying for a small business loan is a recipe for disaster. Often lenders expect borrowers to be fully collateralized. Having a successful employment position strengthens your probability of obtaining a loan or line of credit. While there are a lot of targeted small business funds that don’t require full collateralization, obtaining funds from your financial institution will be challenging if your debt to equity ratio does not meet their criteria and you don’t have a secondary source of income they can secure against the loan. In addition, being employed allows you the flexibility of investing in your small business without the stress of adding more debt into your current financial portfolio. Having the availability to set aside a few hundred dollars each month towards your business is significant when you have to consider paying for licensing, website development, social media support, etc. 4. Don’t Put Your Financial Eggs in One Basket: Diversifying your income allows you to mitigate financial risk and maximize your ability to make more money. Most people rely on their employment position for sole source income and if that position is compromised they may have a difficult time replacing those funds in a short period of time. Creating other opportunities to generate more money provides an additional financial cushion for investments or as an emergency fund program.  The key is to target business concepts that don’t impose too much time on your part but produce a sizable financial return on your investment. Examples may include selling products online, starting a consulting business, or purchasing a semi-absentee franchise opportunity. 5. There Is No Need to Rush the Process: Most entrepreneurs believe they have to rush things to launch a company because they may lose out on the business opportunity. This may actually be a recipe for disaster. Rushing into a business concept without a proper feasibility review including competitive research, market analysis, and customer input is rushing to an unproven plan. Spending time building the foundation of the business allows for validation and a chance to identify the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats of the proposed concept. Once the business has reached a certain consistent income you can decide whether to leap into the business full-time or hire others to manage the business. Ironically many of the Fortune 500 companies today began with entrepreneurs that started their business concept while working for an employer and then transitioned to their business slowly. Skin in the game does not mean you have to quit a job to explore a business. It means you have to be willing to invest time, money, or both in order to build your side hustle into a fledging small business operation. The great news is you don’t have to sacrifice either opportunity to benefit from both opportunities. You can have your cake and eat it too. * * * Kedma Ough is the author of Target Funding: A Proven System to Get the Money and Resources You Need to Start or Grow Your Business. One of today’s most respected authorities on small business funding and entrepreneurship, she is a nationally renowned business coach and funding expert and winner of the Small Business Administration (SBA) Small Business Champion of the Year Award.  As a small business consultant and educator, she has guided more than 10,000 individuals through a wide range of business advising and is a past contributing writer for Entrepreneur Magazine. When she is not running around as a live superhero, she enjoys time with her family and traveling the world. Ough is a proud fifth-generation entrepreneur. * * *   Like us on Instagram and Facebook for additional leadership and personal development ideas. * * *" https://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2019/08/find_your_ideal_job_and_build.htmlhttp://www.leadershipnow.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-atom.cgi/weblog/blog_id=1/entry_id=1751

Look at the changes you will need to make on a daily basis and actions you need to take daily in order to reach your goals. Turn those actions into daily habits. Once you get used to doing the same action daily it will make your goals easier to reach over time.

  To healthily administer self help in regards to bipolar disorder, make sure that you establish a daily schedule and stick to it. This is important because it removes any stress that is caused by uncertainty in your life. Having a schedule will help to put your overall life in order.

  Do not dwell on your problems. Think about the solutions for them. If you are constantly thinking about all of the things that are wrong in your life you will not find any happiness. If you take the time to think about how to resolve those problems you will eliminate them altogether.

  You must be able to concentrate and focus if you plan on being successful in this life. No one can make it in this world by just talking and offering opinions all the time. You must be able to listen, and you must be able to take time to learn about new things in a concentrated manner.

  As you seek for a better tomorrow, the information here can assist you in making your dreams a reality. Holding onto your education, motivation and essential strategies help you make a concrete plan and stick to it; without such structure, moving forward may be more difficult than you can manage. By holding onto these strategies–and most importantly, to hope–you are setting your path toward a better, happier outlook.

[achnet-blog]

Are we underplaying the role of Personal Branding in our careers?

There was a time when the only reputation management tool was living according to societal norms and hope that your peers, in-laws and acquaintances had positive things to say about you, the definition of who you were as a brand was passed on from people to people and what the concerned media decided to pen down on books, newspapers, journals and other mass mediums, this is how we were made aware of some of the most famous personalities, but this was ages ago when the economy was somewhat minimalist in nature and the need to distinguish yourself from others was not a necessity. Let’s think about the how time has changed today’s circumstances, social media and messaging apps are practically the fastest way of communicating, it is stressful to think that one wrong move can make or break whatever it is you are striving to achieve, get you trolled or damage how you are perceived as an individual. The truth is with the way we are handling  or any other online platform, we are not aware of the kind of repercussions about the breadcrumbs we are leaving behind, it sounds unfair that our personal life is on display and to some extent impacts the way we are perceived professionally or for future prospects, but we were aware about being under a microscope when we created our online profiles, think about it, we look at institutions, companies or even services online and if their website is not as much as aesthetically appealing or does not communicate to us effectively we disregard it in a moments time, from their perspective why can’t they do the same and scrutinize our online presence and decide whether we are a fit candidate for employment or getting enrolled in a reputed institution. The actions that we take online and the kind of content we upload or indulge in is our online media’s bio-metrics, varies individually but helps with identification. Is it possibly true that nobody monitors our online activities? Do you believe it? Are we underestimating or even underplaying the role of what we choose to describe ourselves as an individual or even a personal brand somehow a filtering criteria for people who are responsible and deal with decisions that are career related? If I were to put the relationship between cause and effect of having a virtual persona and how effectively we are able to manage it, I would put it in two simple words-PERSONAL BRANDING! Personal branding though has been interchangeably used, is not something that is limited only to celebrities, major companies, musicians, artists, so on and so forth, it is a commitment for those or anyone who is willing to channel their time, energy and  build their niche in whatever they are set out to achieve. Creating a personal brand is a daunting and a mythical task, the amount of trial and error that goes into finding the perfect balance of personal and professional lines is overwhelming, it is a fairly long process not to mention the aspect of self reflection and assessments that we need to go through. We know that personal branding is the key, seeking professional help to aid us is a sure shot way to make sure that your efforts do not go in vain, but one of the major hassle is finding the right mix between people that help us understand what we truly are and people who help us translate the same onto our online platforms.

ACHIEVER NETWORK is one such platform where all your personal branding related activities right from creation of a profile to making the profile shareable with professionals is taken care of, not all of us are aware of what parameters to keep constantly focusing on in order to make a niche as a brand so why not seek professional help? Coaches and mentors for any personal or professional vision are a support system that one requires to constantly grow, integrating all your social media handles onto one platform gives you a sharp view of how collectively you are communicating with the online mediums, a platform that focuses on the possible areas of growth minimizes the number of tasks you can perform, as technology progresses it is our job to match our steps with it and not let it create kind of obstacles that we might or might not be aware of.