Unemployed By Carol Kappes
Boy,
that’s got to be a hard word to take. I
bet you can remember the day they gave you the pink slip! I bet your heart just sank like a ship does
on a stormy night at sea. In your mind, you knew the economy was slipping, and
the company was losing demand for its products.
So it was only a matter of time that “someone” had to leave. And you
were wondering if it was going to be you or your co-worker next to you.
Remember, you are not the only one in this world to hear about this devastating
news. YOU know what, this has happened to me, too, once in my life.
But
you know what I did to make me feel better?
I still did “things” to occupy my mind.
Now you don’t want to lose your mind, do you? And you don’t want to make
yourself saddened by this. Because in
life, there are moments like these. And
they are beyond our control. Just take it in as this is another part of life. I
know it’s not always easy, you will feel easily frustrated at times. But never the less, we just have to continue making forward steps
and strive for something better to come along.
Maybe the next offer will be a dream come true; or a position that you
have always dreamed about. And it
couldn’t have made you feel more proud!
So,
you are wondering what “things.” Well,
to begin with, you have to update your resume.
Now you are going to add your last job into your resume and print out a
few copies. After you have some copies, now you must search once again for
another job. Check out all the sources for employment
positions. Take a look at all the many
online sources like Monster.com, Linkedin.com, Job Fairs, or local newspapers,
etc. There are many sources in which to
choose and work with. Don’t forget to
ask others if they know of any leads.
Let them know you are looking for a job.
Sometimes word of mouth is all it takes to land a job.
And remember, too, to not get yourself
down. Cause if you do, you will show
that insecurity in your interview. And
you don’t want that to happen. Always
keep your mind busy with activity—the reason is because it had been that way in
your job. And also when the mind stays
busy, you’re more apt to stay confident and free from distractions of other
areas that could potentionally destroy your image and character. You can look
up articles about how to prepare for your next interview process. It is always good to look up online and read
about the company or know firsthand information if you can. This is called doing a little “homework”
before the interview. You can also
practice what you will talk about in the interview, have ready your best skills
and projects that you had previously done and what positive opportunities were
in your success from the previous job.
They will also ask you how you see yourself helping them out in the
company and to try to get feedback on the type of person you are for their
success. So learn as much as you can to
let your interview stand out from the other applicants. Knowing how to dress for the interview also
helps you out because the first impressions are the lasting ones that are
remembered.
In
the meantime between your interviews, you can volunteer at some organization or
charity—this gives you a great feeling that you are helping out in some
way. This keeps your tasks and skills
updated. There are many choices such as
food shelves, visiting or helping the elderly, reading or helping out students
in the schools, donate your used
clothing that you never wear, donate your blood to the blood bank. etc. In this way not only are you keeping busy,
but you have a great sense of helping
out others; and they will appreciate you for taking the time out of your life
to help them. Many of those people that
you have helped out will remember your kind acts and they in turn someday will
do it once again to someone else. Or they may give you a recommendation for you
to have to place on your resume and/or profile.
Along with this, you may want to do a course
in continuing education or re-educating yourself once again. There are so many night classes or online
courses to do this. I have taken a
computer class when I had been unemployed for a while. Or you may want to
advance your career and get credentials or a higher degree.
It’s
always good to learn easier ways to do things, or to stay abreast with the new
developments in your career. For some
jobs, it is mandatory for staying abreast to the knowledge in new materials,
new techniques, new procedures, etc. As
with any healthcare worker; it is essential for them. This is a requirement to hold and keep their
license to practice. And you would want
to be able to trust them for any needs and concerns that you have. Your life just might depend on it someday!
Another thing you can do is to do your
favorite hobby; or start one if you never had one. It gives you a sense in accomplishing
something in the end. My favorite one
was crocheting afghans—and I have many that decorate my home. Or you may enjoy
baking, and you can find the time to bake once again and make some to freeze
and then have it at a later time. Maybe you have a project that needed to be
fixed in the home, or some rooms in the house needs painting, you can work on
those things that were put on the list for another time and deal with it
now—since you have the time.
Another
item of importance could be to join some membership groups. There are various organizations such as
Toastmasters, Reading clubs, New mothers group, various support groups, etc. These also bring on added skills that you can
include in your resume. It’s all about
improving yourself and having a better outlook on life and seeing it in another
perspective. Each one of us as we grow
into our career, we should always strive for many opportunities to make
ourselves more knowledgeable and productive.
It all makes life go a lot smoother and everyone then has a less amount
of stress to deal with. And that, is
another good thing. By taking away our
stress, we remain happier, staying positive and enjoying life.
It
has been a few months that have passed, and still no word about a new job
coming your way. I’m sure you are feeling inadequate by now. I know what you
are feeling. Remember many others are in
the same boat as you are. Never give up
on some hope to pull you thru these rough waters. Sometimes you just might have to take any
job to keep some income coming in, in the meantime keep waiting and to keep
searching for the right opportunity to come your way. Life is like the sea- it has waves of high
and low spots-but you’ll eventually get somewhere.
More
than ever—these times are not going into smooth transitions from those going
into retirement and the younger generation taking their place. There is a setback due to Baby Boomers still
working in their jobs, economic instability, and then those that have finished
college, the job openings are not quite there yet. This is causing lots of frustration, change
of events, and not only that, but they have yet to be able to pay down the
loans that they acquired for attending college. And a few others are having
families to support with lots of limited ventures for them. This is not an ideal situation for the
Generation Y workers and will be adding more stress in a world of unknowns. What can one do about this situation? For starters, new jobs must be created. Look deeper and see what needs to be
strengthened to get back to employing workers.
Try to vision ahead and I can see that as the baby boomers age, we will
be needing more healthcare workers to compensate an aging population. There may be new diseases approaching ahead
that we will have to learn to eradicate.
We may be needing more science workers for the future to keep up with
the demanding studies into the human body, nature and discoveries still yet to
be seen. The world keeps changing, and
when it does, our thinking will have to accommodate with the demands of what is
yet to be seen.
Take
a look at the history of unemployment and what was happening during those times. One of the first beginnings was an estimated
recordings in 1890. As you can see in
the graph, The Great Wall Street Crash of 1929, we had high unemployment after
that. Then when we look at the actual
recorded unemployment in the 1940’s;
this is the years of World War II, the same thing has been continuous high
levels of people wanting to find work and jobs to support their families. There
was food rationed at the time also for everyone to have their share. So in looking at the graph, there is a long
span of 15 years when things were in a recession and things were not to the
best economic years in which people were just making and getting by. I found this to be quite interesting and
knowing that tough times do come around as history sometimes repeats itself. Now as for me, when I had finished my dental
assistant training, it was hard for me to land a job opportunity at that
time. USA had 9% unemployment rate then. And I
remember those times too that I was ready to venture and work, but my
opportunity had been stalled for a little bit.
So then we just have to sometimes deal with what comes our way.
What you don’t want to do is to just sit and
do nothing—because that will only set you into depression and remember that we
are keeping the mind sharp! Another little thing is to once again be with your
family. Spend your free moments in the
quality of family time. It’s there now,
so take advantage of it. You will have the opportunity to know and understand
your children in ways that you may not have had the chance before. You get to venture in the outdoors and visit
parks, learn about things together, stay emotionally connected, etc. This is what makes family life fun and
enjoyable.
In
this article, I have given you an idea of how we can deal with things that are
not always in our control. As in our
world, we all just have to do the best we can in all areas in our life--things
are never the same and we have to accept the problems that we must face in any
uncertain years of our life. We can
learn to “save” in our good years and then learn to “sacrifice” in our bad
years. And to live one day at a time!
Right
now the statistics are as follows of the unemployment rates in countries:
10.4% France
5.1%
Germany
8.5% India 7.3 % Netherlands
6.7% United States 6.0%
Australia
7.1% United Kingdom 3.9 %
Japan
6.9% Canada
4.1% China
I
agree, this is not always a pretty sight. We
all want it to get better, believe me, I once was there myself; and countless
many others. So, remember, there are
many in the same boat as YOU. We just
have to find the smooth wave and sail back to shore!
Weight
Gain/Obesity by
Carol Kappes
It
is time once again for the annual or every 2 year physical medical exam. I had always believed in preventive
medicine. Catch any problem before it
became a bigger problem that you couldn’t help with. Or catch the problem early with your health
so that you are aware of any steps to treat the condition before it gets
worse. You want to treat things early so
that you can have a better quality of life.
You would like to feel healthy and still do the fun things in your
retirement years.
There
was at one time that I had gone for a physical; and I knew the doctor would
tell me that I had gained weight. Every time
you see the doctor, they like to check many things. They like to check your weight; to see if you
have lost or gained, measure your height, take your blood pressure, etc. All these tests are done to keep you
healthy. This is very important in
providing information to the doctor. So
when the doctor comes in to review your progress, he will tell you what he recommends
for you to stay within your healthy lifestyle.
We all want that good feeling as we go about doing our daily activities.
Well,
it happened at one point in my life that I knew what he was going to say. He
told me that I had begun gaining weight. And I knew that I had begun to gain
weight due to stress in my life and probably feeling depressed. Now that was a blow to my ego. I knew it, and it still left me feeling
sad. So he instructed me with a valuable
hand-out sheet of particular foods and meals that I should be eating and to
stay within the guidelines to get myself back to my normal weight for my body.
Also included was to stay active with physical activity. So I knew then to be
working on following his instructions.
Why
do we want to follow his instructions?
Well for starters, we paid him money in the exchange that we are taking
care of our health. We expect to get his expertise information to keep us
healthy and strong. I want to continue my duration of life like my grandparents
did. They had lived a long and happy
life well into the mid 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.
I really enjoyed being with them at times, because I learned a lot of
valuable information from them. I had seen them live a vigorous life with lots
of enjoyment. They had the Christian
spirit in them, even though their body had aged. And we all know that someday it’s going to
be every one of us going through the same aging process.
But
my concern is that many of us don’t take the proper care. I am going to follow his guidelines in
keeping my weight at the ideal weight for my age and height. There are many reasons to listen to my
doctor. I will explain to you how we
could go about doing something for yourself.
And when you accomplish this goal, you will feel better than ever.
The
very first thing you should consider is how you value yourself. Maybe you hadn’t even thought of this. Picture yourself being thin and being able to wear more
fashionable designs with a few more details on them. I had thought about this
when I had noticed that the skirt I had been wearing when I was heavy, just
didn’t look that pretty on me. I just
looked like a drab of a person, and I no longer wanted to remain this way. So,
in order for me to get out of this picture, I decided to purchase some
magazines to help me with this goal. One
of the magazines was about beauty and the other one was about health and
fitness. They sure helped me in my
goals. It was good to hear about others’
lives and how they deal with what matters to them. I was able to hear their
stories and then as I was working on my weight plan I felt really motivated to
get started with myself. And I’m glad that I did. To me the effort was worth
more than gold. I feel really good about
myself; I’m right where I want to be. I was in the healthcare industry, so I
should stay within my weight so that I would look well in helping others. And
so I concentrated to get this effect for me. Maybe you’ve seen actresses,
singers, TV personalities, fitness experts, etc enjoying their life and feeling
happy and full of energy. They have that
energy because their body is active and full of life. They spend a lot of time at the gym, walking,
exercising, etc and maintaining their looks. They also are aware to eat smaller
portions as to not exceed in the calorie amount. They know what feels
right. So keep this perspective in mind.
Take
the next look at your physique of your body.
You know that it is overweight, but how does it look to your overall
height? This is what they measure. Each person’s proportional size varies
considerably. The doctor can tell you at
what weight your goal should be reached at.
So keep this picture in your mind. Make every attempt to know your goal
and to meet it. Do you really want the weight gain or would you rather have a
muscular toned one? All you need to do
is to exercise more and have a set of barbells in your home. I have a set that I use every day and tone my
arms. It gives them a sort of muscular
tone to them that helps in your overall arm strength. And I am happy with the results to this
simple exercise. You can always start small and work yourself up to a more
enduring exercise routine.
Now
we are going to take you to the selection of foods that you are to consume to
make your diet work towards losing the weight.
Make good choices of fruits and vegetables, and limit your portions of
them along with the meat product. When
you start to diet and have these smaller portion meals; you will feel
hungry. But don’t be alarmed. You know what I did? I drank water to curb that extra feeling that
you are still hungry. Water does wonders
to your body. It not only is good for
you, but it rehydrates your body and also makes you feel full. And another thing that I did was to cut out
the sugar drinks. So then I would pour
myself a glass of water and I placed either lime or lemon juice directly into
the water; just a small amount to flavor the water. In your mind that drink is flavorful and
tastes really great. This definitely
will help in your losing weight fairly fast.
It
is also advisable to not frequent those restaurants as often as you might have
been. I love to go out and have a good
time every so often; but I don’t make it into a habit. The reason being is that the foods have more
calories as they enhance all the flavors of the food they are serving in the
restaurant. And then you are more apt to
order more drinks while you are there eating and talking with someone that you
admire.
Now
we are going to talk about our lifestyle.
What style do we live our life?
Are we getting outside and taking daily walks? Are we enjoying seeing the sights of
nature? Do we get to see the warmth of
the sun on our faces and enjoy having a little tan? These are great adventure moments. Take in the breath of the air and treasure
the atmosphere. Not only is this
exercise, but it also helps your mind to relax.
It keeps it free from stress and this opportunity relieves any depressed
thoughts you could be having. Sometimes
in these thoughts, we want to run for some snack foods. And when you have too many snacks, you are
once again gaining weight. This sort of pattern can continue if you are not
following guidelines towards a better future.
Or,
is your lifestyle on the slower side? So
you spend lots of time at a desk or live a more sedentary life? If this is the case, what you will have to do
is to get up and move. I know this will
sound a little bit difficult at first, but just start with your breaks. Leave the area and walk around. Take in that glass of water, too. Then for your lunch break, what I do is I get
out of the office area and take a walk.
It helps to get freshened up for the afternoon. I get things out of my mind for a little
while, too. It helps re-energize me for
the next few hours of work. Remember too
that our body was made for physical activity during our day. With this incentive, we would make all the
difference to our lives.
When
there is overweight, it is known as obesity. It is an excessive amount of body
fat on a person. They measure this by
the body mass index. This is the figure
that your healthcare provider will tell you. Now let’s discuss what happens
when you are not in control of your weight.
It’s one of those things where you would want to avoid if at all
possible. For our skeleton was not
designed to carry a heavy load. Why is that, you ask? I will tell you. When you begin to have obesity, you are at a
risk of various health problems and an earlier death.
The
many health problems associated with it can be diabetes, heart disease, high
blood pressure and an increase to certain types of cancer, lung, and bone
problems. Of course, each is
individualized so it varies from person to person. At this point, the doctors can’t stress it
enough for you to seriously redirect your entire lifestyle. It is now extremely up to you. You are the one in control of your body and
also your life. It is now time for you to think of how you view yourself and
see where your future is heading. Do you
want the added disease that may come in the direction to you? How would you feel about it? It could weaken your zest to life, and you
will have something different to learn to contend with. You will have to be
taking something to keep yourself healthy.
Or with the excessive weight, your bone structure at the knees are
becoming weakened from the heavy load.
Then your ease at walking has been limited. All these kind of things are what can happen
in the likely hood that you don’t take better care to your health. And I would not want your spirits to become
lower than they already are in your life.
Think
of the many possibilities in your future.
Maybe you have children, and you would love to see your grandchildren
someday. You’d like to see them grow up
and maybe read a story or two to them.
You can play games with them, and talk about all the things in life. Not
only that, but you will experience life in a new perspective. You can finally get to have your dream
vacation that you had always wanted to. Maybe you have family and friends that
you can share the time with during your scenic vacation. All this is an incentive to a satisfying,
retirement lifestyle.
I have been noticing a trend of some of my
classmates that have had an early death within the ages of 45-55 years old. And it saddens me to hear this. We live where
we have access to good care, yet many are not using it as preventive
medicine. This is the wrong idea. Look
how much healthier our lifestyles would be if we only listened to the doctors
information. Take his word seriously. And
start early in your life. Can you imagine the sky high costs in healthcare for
all these problems that could have been prevented if people were more health
conscious? This is the reason our
healthcare tends to go up as many people are in need of ongoing treatment to
these conditions that very well could have been prevented. Remember, it’s all about preventing the
problems that could occur from obesity.
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