Why Some of Us Need to Gain An Edge at Work
The C-Virus mess continues. Today I'm looking for an edge in my work to help me through the mess.
An edge isn't a magic bullet. It's simply something that gives us a leg up. You can gain an edge in your business by having a product that simply outshines all competitors. As an employee, you can have an edge in your company by displaying a cooperative attitude with a dose of enthusiasm; or, if you're in sales, meeting and exceeding your quotas - consistently, over and over again.
But we're not talking about that kind of edge now. We're looking for something that will give us a leg up in the middle of this C-virus mess. Even if your business or your employer isn't suffering too much, you may need an edge to help you through the days, weeks, and months ahead. I know I do.
My business isn't suffering that much. I'm keeping the business afloat. When it comes to revenue, things aren't great but we're surviving. (Whether that holds up in the future, only time will tell.) It's not revenue that's on my mind. But I could use an edge because of other things swirling around us these days.
Family Concerns
If you have older family members or some who have immune deficiencies, you may, like me, have serious concerns for them. My thoughts stray from my work throughout the day because I think of them. I can't help it.
The Economy
This one may seem obvious. It affects all of us. Even if you're not suffering from the economic depression caused by the recent draconian lockdowns due to COVID, you likely know others who are. And if for some reason you don't personally know someone deeply affected by the economy, you should have the brains to realize that many are. And, depending on the direction the economy takes now, those who are suffering economic dislocation will - guaranteed - affect your life in ways you may not now imagine.
Or, maybe you can imagine. Unless you're Rip Van Winkel waking from a long sleep, you've seen the demonstrations and riots. You've watched the statues being beheaded and/or pulled down. In our community, large swaths of retail stores were looted, their glass broken, some set on fire.
It's not a temporary phenomenon, one that's going to go away. Sorry if you thought that. But it's time to face up to what seems now to be a long-term trend:
Social Unrest
We're entering a period where social unrest will become an ongoing concern. The vandalism and violence we witnessed recently will serve as a taste. What began as demonstrations against an injustice very quickly turned violent. Very quickly. That wasn't a coincidence. There are people out there who believe our government must be overthrown. They believe this not because they seek to remedy injustice. They believe this because they are Marxists, more accurately Communists.
There, I said it. We typically don't get into politics on this blog. It's not our focus. But the fact that Marxist/Communist groups have now ramped up their attempts to take power affects us all. And the knowledge of this affects my work. It began as a distraction at first. But as the reality of the intentions of these groups sunk in, it's more than that. It's a potential game-changer - to put it mildly.
Let's not slip into some theoretical mode where we debate the merits and faults of capitalism and think that some sort of reform or softening of the harder edges of capitalism will satisfy Marxist/Communist groups. It won't. They want power and they want it now. The demonstrations were their edge. They leveraged the legitimate protests over an unjust act. Within days, they had organized mayhem in multiple cities across the country. Do you think these just happened to spring up on their own? Think again.
This isn't some conspiracy theory. Sorry if you think it is. Stick you head in the sand if you wish. But someday you'll have to pull it out. For those of us with our heads held upright, as the reality of building social unrest sinks in, we can't help but find it distracting as we try to keep our minds on our work.
What's Going on In the Church
Last, but certainly not least, what's going on in the Church could easily be #1 on this list. Start with the closing (until recently) of churches, and the virtual disappearance of our priests and bishops, which meant no Mass, no Sacraments. But it goes deeper. The sexual abuse scandals that rocked the Church in recent years really are the tip of the iceberg. Between those scandals and the recent abandonment of the faithful due to COVID, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that the modernism we referenced recently has now ascended to dominate the landscape. Again, I suspect some may see these comments as conspiracy theory. I don't. We don't have time to expand on this now. But I wanted you to know how I see the state of the Church in the midst of this mess.
You can disagree with some of this. I don't think you can ignore family concerns. And if you're a thinking man, you should be able to appreciate the damage done to the economy - damage that's not going to magically fix itself now that incidents of COVID are falling and the "re-openings" is underway. (Never mind the distinct possibility of a second wave of COVID in the fall.) You can think I'm exaggerating about the social unrest or the state of the Church. (Good luck with that.) But whatever your view, whatever your current state of mind. I suspect gaining an edge to offset the natural distractions our current mess serves up would be a good thing.
So with that as background, we'll get into specifics next time. We'll see how we can gain an edge despite our current mess.
An edge isn't a magic bullet. It's simply something that gives us a leg up. You can gain an edge in your business by having a product that simply outshines all competitors. As an employee, you can have an edge in your company by displaying a cooperative attitude with a dose of enthusiasm; or, if you're in sales, meeting and exceeding your quotas - consistently, over and over again.
But we're not talking about that kind of edge now. We're looking for something that will give us a leg up in the middle of this C-virus mess. Even if your business or your employer isn't suffering too much, you may need an edge to help you through the days, weeks, and months ahead. I know I do.
My business isn't suffering that much. I'm keeping the business afloat. When it comes to revenue, things aren't great but we're surviving. (Whether that holds up in the future, only time will tell.) It's not revenue that's on my mind. But I could use an edge because of other things swirling around us these days.
Family Concerns
If you have older family members or some who have immune deficiencies, you may, like me, have serious concerns for them. My thoughts stray from my work throughout the day because I think of them. I can't help it.
The Economy
This one may seem obvious. It affects all of us. Even if you're not suffering from the economic depression caused by the recent draconian lockdowns due to COVID, you likely know others who are. And if for some reason you don't personally know someone deeply affected by the economy, you should have the brains to realize that many are. And, depending on the direction the economy takes now, those who are suffering economic dislocation will - guaranteed - affect your life in ways you may not now imagine.
Or, maybe you can imagine. Unless you're Rip Van Winkel waking from a long sleep, you've seen the demonstrations and riots. You've watched the statues being beheaded and/or pulled down. In our community, large swaths of retail stores were looted, their glass broken, some set on fire.
It's not a temporary phenomenon, one that's going to go away. Sorry if you thought that. But it's time to face up to what seems now to be a long-term trend:
Social Unrest
We're entering a period where social unrest will become an ongoing concern. The vandalism and violence we witnessed recently will serve as a taste. What began as demonstrations against an injustice very quickly turned violent. Very quickly. That wasn't a coincidence. There are people out there who believe our government must be overthrown. They believe this not because they seek to remedy injustice. They believe this because they are Marxists, more accurately Communists.
There, I said it. We typically don't get into politics on this blog. It's not our focus. But the fact that Marxist/Communist groups have now ramped up their attempts to take power affects us all. And the knowledge of this affects my work. It began as a distraction at first. But as the reality of the intentions of these groups sunk in, it's more than that. It's a potential game-changer - to put it mildly.
Let's not slip into some theoretical mode where we debate the merits and faults of capitalism and think that some sort of reform or softening of the harder edges of capitalism will satisfy Marxist/Communist groups. It won't. They want power and they want it now. The demonstrations were their edge. They leveraged the legitimate protests over an unjust act. Within days, they had organized mayhem in multiple cities across the country. Do you think these just happened to spring up on their own? Think again.
This isn't some conspiracy theory. Sorry if you think it is. Stick you head in the sand if you wish. But someday you'll have to pull it out. For those of us with our heads held upright, as the reality of building social unrest sinks in, we can't help but find it distracting as we try to keep our minds on our work.
What's Going on In the Church
Last, but certainly not least, what's going on in the Church could easily be #1 on this list. Start with the closing (until recently) of churches, and the virtual disappearance of our priests and bishops, which meant no Mass, no Sacraments. But it goes deeper. The sexual abuse scandals that rocked the Church in recent years really are the tip of the iceberg. Between those scandals and the recent abandonment of the faithful due to COVID, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that the modernism we referenced recently has now ascended to dominate the landscape. Again, I suspect some may see these comments as conspiracy theory. I don't. We don't have time to expand on this now. But I wanted you to know how I see the state of the Church in the midst of this mess.
You can disagree with some of this. I don't think you can ignore family concerns. And if you're a thinking man, you should be able to appreciate the damage done to the economy - damage that's not going to magically fix itself now that incidents of COVID are falling and the "re-openings" is underway. (Never mind the distinct possibility of a second wave of COVID in the fall.) You can think I'm exaggerating about the social unrest or the state of the Church. (Good luck with that.) But whatever your view, whatever your current state of mind. I suspect gaining an edge to offset the natural distractions our current mess serves up would be a good thing.
So with that as background, we'll get into specifics next time. We'll see how we can gain an edge despite our current mess.
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