Celebrate One-Year Anniversary of Inside Jobs

We started our eNewsletter, Inside Jobs, in November 2021. Here are some highlights of what the year looked liked in our infancy.

November 2021. In a nutshell, we create technical, marketing, and business publications, infographics, print and eBooks, eLearning tools, and more. We’ve been at it for 35 years, but who’s counting?

December 2021. We created an infographic that compares our writing process to growing a garden. As we nurture the seedlings of ideas, the results we deliver are the product of a careful, methodical process.

January 2022. We developed The eLearning Companion to Career Success in 12 Easy Steps: A Journal. There’s a Self-Assessment; and there’s My Evolving Story, fill-in-the-blank prompts for writing your own success story.

February 2022. We explored new tools to create new products. Using Jutoh, we first created an eBook, A Step, a Stroll, a Blog, a Book: Collecting My Thoughts, and then created the print book. Both are now available for your reading pleasure.

March 2022. We shared excerpts from Living Well in Froggy’s World of Plenty: Sweet Talk to Read Aloud. In spite of the frivolity of the stories, we asked some sober questions: What toasts do you offer yourself and others? What work does your colony achieve? What hobby makes you limber, lively, and lovely? We’d love to know.

April 2022. You’ll find 20 books that open the mind, touch the heart, and inspire. What better way to spend a rainy day, a snowy day, a sunny day, or just about any day. For a brief description of these books, click here.

May 2022. We shared our spring cleaning tips for both the physical and digital workspace. Also, Judy shared her four books at a book signing and came away with stories you can only get when you venture outside your home office and interact with the world.

June 2022. We shared how it is important to clean out the items we no longer need so that we can be more open to receiving new items and ideas. After cleaning her office of some items that she no longer needed, she attended a crafting afternoon and found a new way to organize her ideas for a new book with a junk journal.

July 2022. Shenouda Associates shared some of the ways we maintain our focus in the office through taking classes outside of the home or indulging in a separate hobby. This month, Judy looked into turning Living Well in Froggy’s World of Plenty: Sweet Talk to Read Aloud into audio. To listen, click here.

August 2022. We spoke about how the end of summer can prompt us to keep learning. Parents get their kids ready for school. Everyone looks for opportunities to grow their professional development or simply look for a way to connect with other like-minded individuals, like at a book event.

September 2022. We looked back at how much knowledge was shared at the book event we attended in addition to how much fun we had meeting local authors and hearing them speak about their wares.

October 2022. We shared what could be our last outings into the great outdoors before the first snow fell. We also pointed out the joy of shopping locally and supporting the non-chain businesses in our community.

November 2022. Starts year two of Inside Jobs. We can’t wait to share with you what’s new.

To subscribe to Inside Jobs, our monthly newsletter, click here. To visit our website, click here.

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Progress—More on Froggy’s Story

Remember I wrote about Froggy who wonders what made that annoying wart wander away? Well, every now and then, I think about Froggy and his human friends who experience wellness, somewhat mystified as to how the healing really occurred.
I committed to writing Froggy’s story and I’ve made some progress. I’ve dipped into my own well, my reservoir, my creative source for exploring wellness. I needed a place to hold what pokes through the gray matter and created a template for my new book. I simply took the file for my earlier book, stripped away the content, and had place savers for a book title, subtitle, front matter, chapters, and end matter. I had styles for headings, paragraphs, lists, and quotes. With a container all set to go, I pasted my start to Froggy’s story into a chapter. With the momentum building, I was on a roll.
About This Book started to take shape.

Wellness is all encompassing. It touches all aspects of one’s being. Wellness permeates—and transcends—the person. When one is well, there’s a sense of wholeness, a sense that all is right with the world.
Annoyances, irritations, aches, and pain subside, fade away, dissipate, and disappear. One becomes open to the light. One is free to attend to the good, the sacred, even the holy.
Experts in various disciplines know something about wellness. The doctor… The nutritionist… The athlete… The naturalist… The musician… The entertainer… All have their take on the subject.
Yet, the composite from the many disciplines is not the whole story. A mystical ingredient exists. In the process of writing this book, I am hopeful that the known ingredients of wellness and the mystical might just meet.

The Dedication helped me to establish a timeline.
With my late mother’s 100th birthday one year from now, I have a goal—to honor the occasion with a book in hand, one that serves as an expression of a daughter’s love and admiration.
Progress is sweet.
What I have, thus far, accomplished are little steps toward turning an idea into a book. Yet, little steps are steps nevertheless. Progress is sweet. I feel good.

Looking good

Back cover for A Bisl of This, A Bisl of That: Eating Our Way

A new look

This week, I dressed up my blog! The old header, which highlighted Career Success in 12 Easy Steps: A Journal, my first book, is gone. A new, impressionistic splurge of colors now appears. Just above it, there is a new menu item, Eating Our Way. Just above that, there’s a new book title, A Bisl of This, A Bisl of That: Eating Our Way. And to the right, there’s a new image, showing off one very tasty dish―part cookbook, part inspiration, part memoir―that is now hot off the press! With this facelift completed, I sit back, look, and enjoy it.

A new book

The reason for this new look? I wanted to include my new book in this blog. The original blog focused on how to transition successfully from one phase of work or one phase of life to another, based on the process detailed in Career Success in 12 Easy Steps: A Journal.

This refreshed, revitalized blog retains the existing blog entries and categories and additionally showcases the results of paying attention to the many earlier postings in this blog. Being mindful of Capabilities, talents, and strengths; Decision-making, problem-solving, and organizing; Motivation and inspiration; Self-discovery and self-actualization through exploration and reflection; and Work and life balance; I now have A Bisl of This, A Bisl of That: Eating Our Way as an addition to my Products, services, and offerings. It is now among my Success stories!

A new opportunity―for you

Look over this blog. See what resonates. Let the postings, the comments, the books, the menu, and the categories evoke something positive in you. Let the impressionistic dots, patterns, ripples, waves, and colors splashed in the new header allow you to picture an opportunity that is waiting just for you. Perhaps it is a project, a product, or another creation. Tell us about it. Tell the world!

Gratitude. Generosity. Sustenance.

Next weekend, I am attending my high school reunion. Many, many years have passed―more than I care to admit. I will be driving a relatively short distance, just 70 miles or so, to the place I forever consider my home and will be staying in the bedroom I shared―from my entry to kindergarten to graduation from high school―with an older sister. At just about the same time, we both moved to new digs. She got married, and I went to college. Until recently, my mother (Ma) lived upstairs, along with one of my three brothers, and other members of our family have occupied the downstairs. With Ma now playing “Pennies from Heaven” and other favorite songs on a piano in her celestial abode, returning home is no longer the same, but with family there, it is still very, very good.

For me, this upcoming trip requires no extensive travel arrangements, and I’m all set as far as attire, since that is not a primary concern. For any occasion, including this one, I simply put myself together and am presentable. After a glance in the mirror to adjust anything that might obviously be amiss, I move on.

Yet, this occasion, this milestone, this high school reunion does cause me to pause.

Wood works wonders.

My writing desk is a work in progress.

While you are looking at this photo of a work in progress, I am marveling over the real deal—the varnished, cherry writing desk, now with knobs on the two drawers and a panel that goes over the drawer on the left to provide additional surface.

From the unfinished writing desk that my brother Larry and my cousin Marty are modeling in the photo, you can likely tell that this is homemade. Larry, our family’s very own woodworker and furniture maker, asked me what I’d like at the start of this very tough upstate New York winter. Answering Larry’s question was easy. I wanted a writer’s desk.

Take a first step. Let the momentum unfold.

Sometimes, we look at the end result of a new endeavor and get stuck. The effort needed to start and the energy required to persist are just too much. So, what can we do? We can take a first step. We can take a second step and a third.
I recall hearing a new year’s resolution a while ago, in which someone wanted to start an exercise routine. She committed to taking this one step every day—after getting dressed, she would put on her running shoes. The next thing she knew, she was outdoors every day and walking. As the days wore on, she picked up her pace, making good use of those running shoes.
For all of us, in time, the momentum builds, and the results become apparent. Making progress and achieving a goal no longer seem difficult or insurmountable. I took a first step a few months ago on a family project.

Accentuate the positive to transform your community for good!

Note: This blog is adapted from a recent Thinking Forward event, in which a troupe of professional speakers (including me!) explored the theme, Transform Your Community for Good.

The lyrics to songs can be like poetry that speaks to us. Music—the arts, nature, so much that surrounds us—can reveal intelligence, wisdom, and basic truths that we can apply to the communities in which we live and work.

Do you know the song, Accentuate the Positive? It goes like this:

You’ve got to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mr. In-Between
You’ve got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith, or pandemonium is liable to walk upon the scene

To illustrate my last remark
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark
What did they do just when everything looked so dark
They said you’ve got to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mr. In-Between
No! Don’t mess with Mr. In-Between

(Music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by Johnny Mercer, published in 1944.)

I got to thinking about how this song relates to communities—and here I’m thinking of communities in the broadest sense.

What are some of the characteristics of communities?

Communities of people come in lots of different sizes and shapes.

Communities are specialized and similar or diverse and different in terms of age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, cultural background, residence, level of education, economic status, type of employment, or some other demographic.

Communities likely have insiders and outsiders. Members may all live in the same county. Maybe they are all librarians or healthcare providers. Maybe they have the same professional degrees or licenses.

Communities can have different structures. They can be flat, where all members have an equal voice. They can be hierarchical, where some members fall somewhere between the top and the bottom.

In some communities, you already belong. If you graduated from a certain university, you are in the community of alum. In others, you have to join. For example, membership in an association of alums likely makes you a more exclusive member of the community, with additional benefits.

Some communities share a physical space and some share a virtual space. For example, the technical communication community, to which I belong, meets every year at a conference. Members of this community also meet virtually at webinars and other online forums.

Though communities are different, members have a common tie that binds them to the community—whether at home with your family and friends; at work with employers, clients, employees, and colleagues; in recreational activities; or in volunteer pursuits.

And, as human beings who breathe the same air and walk the same earth, we are all part of a very large community where what we do touches others.

Know a good community when you see it. Focus on the good. Focus on the positive.

As the song says, you’ve got to:

• Accentuate the positive. Latch on to the affirmative.
• Spread joy up to the maximum.
• And have faith!

How do you recognize a good community? You’ll know it by its fruits. You’ll see a lot that’s positive, affirming, and encouraging. You’ll see signs of joy. And yes, there will be a spirit of faith and optimism. There will be a sense that wonderful possibilities can transpire.

Let me give you two examples: