Inner Connections » work

Continual Learning

Laura D'Ambrosio — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 08:37:30 +0000

Once again I learn anew and this blog changes.

I moved my Wordpress.com blog to Wordpress.org using Hostgator for my hosting. Goodbye Go Daddy and the continual upselling. Though Hostgator and Wordpress.org require more technical acuity, I’m plodding along making progress. Though there has got to be a way to upload folders or multiple files on cPanel. One file at a time is excruciating.

BTW has anyone else noticed that your spelling has deteriorated over the years of spell check availability? Mine sure has gone downhill. Though I type faster now.

As I write, my Siberian Husky sleeps in the shade next to me, a frisky chipmunk darts around the flower pots munching happily on bird seed while sparrows and finches sway on the feeder above. It’s a beautiful early September day and life is good – especially if I can get the template, the plug-ins and the widgets to play nicely on the web.

Seven Skills for Navigiating the New Ecomomy

Laura D'Ambrosio — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:06:59 +0000

For years, I’ve been an instructional designer, technical writer, trainer, project manager and change analyst. I’ve loved it and there were days that I wished I could go plant flowers instead of solve business problems. This career gave me a good living and allowed me the means to do other things I love to do, like travel. Then the world changed.

We have a stalled economy. Social media proliferation. Speed of communication. Downsizing that feels permanent. Foreclosures. Stress. Depression even. We need new skills in this world. New ways to live if we want to live more fully. New ways to make a living. These are the seven skills I think we need to navigate the new world we find ourselves in:

Learn critical financial skills. Create a budget. Know about mortgages and refinances. Reduce expenses. Figure out how to share.
Understand the ways social media, blogging and new technologies can help you. Learn how to use them, if not for you, to keep up with your kids.
If you are not healthy, you can’t cope as easily. So go for a walk and stretch and eat your veggies.
Speaking of food, learn how to cook and grow your own veggies. It tastes better, costs less and can be more fun than going out. And weeding counts as exercise.
Spend time with family and friends. Learn who your neighbors are and have people over for a potluck meal.
Cultivate hope and inspiration. It’s different for everyone but find time to look at the stars, feel the breeze, be in silence, laugh, play with a puppy. Whatever feeds your soul.
Help others. It’s amazing how wonderful it feels to do even the smallest kindness for others.

As my old familiar life burns away, I practice these skills, knowing that new opportunities, maybe better ones await. As my friend said in a comment, “Barn burned; now I can see the stars.”

Closed Doors; Open Windows

Laura D'Ambrosio — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:37:10 +0000

Sometime during the holiday season, you’ll probably hear a song from the movie The Sound of Music. “I simply remember my favorite things….” I love that movie! But it’s not the lyrics of a song from the movie that stand out. Rather it’s a piece of dialog from the scene where Maria is talking with Mother Superior about going back to the Von Trapp’s home after running back to the convent to escape her feelings of love for the captain. The Reverand Mother tells Maria as she sends her back, “When God closes a door, somewhere he opens a window.”

That line pops like a refrain into my mind often these days as I navigate this wobbly economy and watch others try their best to stay on track with life. Many doors slammed closed for many people as investment accounts shrink, jobs disappear, and industries teeter on the brink of extinction. The doors of my consulting practice developing learning programs and helping companies manage change slammed shut time and time again in recent months. But I continued to rush to the next door or knock on all the old doors again only to find them tightly shut.

Then I thought about Maria and the Reverend Mother from The Sound of Music and started wondering, “If all my doors are closed, then where are the open windows?” I asked myself questions designed to help me find some windows.

What do I love to do?
What gives meaning to my life?
What skills do I have to offer?
What can I give others?
What am I interested in?

My answers led me to start this blog and to create workshops and tools to guide people through this crazy time, a time full of change, a time when we need to learn new ways to work, a time when we need inspiration to keep us going, and a time when sometimes, all we need is someone to listen as we sort it all out.