The website has changed again

If you're a subscriber reading this, I invite you to click here to check out what I've done to the website.

When I created my other new website, Alan Seeks A Boss, the website theme I used on that site was something that I really liked, but I used it in a way that was inconsistent with this site, Alan's Journey.

Today I got around to updating this site with the same theme. I've put the sidebar widgets into the footer instead of into the sidebar, and I've tidied up the contents so it looks much neater.

I removed the Facebook Likes widget, because no one was using it anyway. 50-60 unique visitors a day and no one liking it suggests to me that it's a waste of time having it around. So out it goes.

The end result is something that is still simple, which is one of my most important parameters, because simple is fast and the faster a site is, the better it is. But not only is it simple, it also looks good and is responsive, so it changes according to the size of the screen it's being viewed on.

It also looks unique and different to any of the other blogs out there, and that's important to me. I like to stand out from the rest of the blogs out there, presenting my own unique face to the world.

And finally, I updated the banner to look the same as what's on the Alan Seeks A Boss website. I think the avatar and the style of the font in the header lends itself to a brand style. My avatar is my brand, and so I'm using that across the different sites I have.

What do you think?

Meditation and wisdom

It seems that the theme for me over this past week has been about meditation and wisdom, which is something I'm quite happy about.

A long time ago, I was a wise young man. I also meditated a lot.

And then I got older and became a grumpy older man, and wisdom has been something I've felt is lacking in me for quite a few years. I haven't meditated for quite a few years either.

And just like I've been seeking wisdom in my life again, I've also been seeking the motivation to return to meditation.

I think there's a huge correlation in the amount of wisdom a person has, and the amount of meditation they engage in.

Young people can display incredible wisdom, if they spend time in quiet contemplation about life and the human experience.

Wisdom is not something that is automatically gained the older you get. There's some really immature and ignorant old people out there. Nor is it something that you're born with, despite many children or teenagers seeming to be wise beyond their years.

Those who manage to calm their mind and avoid engaging in the chaos around them, seem to display wisdom.

It's usually in those who have learnt over the years that keeping their mind calm leads to a better life, but even children can find a peacefulness in their mind, and end up being wise too.

In my premium post this week in The Journey Files, I wrote about meditation. I wrote about how spiritually connected I used to be back when I used to meditate. I wrote about how much I miss meditating.

Since then, I've been thinking about this topic, and the connection that meditation seems to have with spiritual connections and experiences, as well as with wisdom.

I don't think it's a coincidence that the wisest of people throughout history also used to meditate.

If one seeks wisdom, then one should seek to meditate on the intricacies of life. Or even just to clear the mind. If one seeks to find clarity in thought, then meditation seems to be the path to that objective.

It's clear to me that I need to meditate more. I've already started this week, but I've only done it once. I intend developing it into a daily habit, first thing in the morning when I wake up. To clear my mind after sleeping, to begin each new day with clarity of thought.

I suspect that one of the side effects of it will be increased quality in my writing.

I also recognise that I need to purposefully move away from those things in my life that distract me from my purpose, which in this instance is to improve my writing. In order to calm my mind, I need to eliminate those things which cloud it.

There's going to be some changes around here as I work at simplifying my life and removing these emotional distractions so I can have a clearer mind when meditating.

Lots of changes, lots of processing

One of the things about my life is that it's always full of change. Something is always changing, somehow, somewhere. I usually embrace change, because it's been a part of my life ever since I was born, but sometimes change can be overwhelming.

Like the past few years of stress leading up to having to declare bankruptcy. That was a time full of change that I really didn't enjoy. It was overwhelming at times, but I kept on plodding away, one foot at a time, making my way through it.

And the past few months without work; that's been quite a change. Along with having to manage a wedding at the same time, and then a move to another city. Again, lots of change that has been overwhelming at times.

I realised tonight that during those periods where it's all been too overwhelming, I've needed to do a lot of mental processing of it. Even if that processing is to distract myself from the reality of my situation for a while, to allow me to deal with it a little further down the track. While I'm doing something to distract myself, my mind is processing in the background.

If I spent my time focusing on the overwhelming changes, I suspect I'd go mad. Or turn to drugs or something.

But instead, I spend any spare time gaming, to distract my mind from a reality that is highly stressful. And without work at the moment, I have a lot of spare time.

We're making our way through life, my wife and I, despite the challenges we have with me out of work. We're grateful for the resources that have come our way to help us through very trying times. The universe - through good friends and family - has provided for us when we've needed it, and we're always going to be grateful for that.

There's been a lot less posts on this blog over the past few weeks, and over the past few days I've been trying to work out why. My realisation tonight has been that it's because I've been overwhelmed by change, and that it's too stressful for me to write about it, or even to feel comfortable writing about anything else, and so I've stayed silent.

The fact I'm writing about this is something I'm finding amazing.

But I wanted to share this with you to explain why I haven't maintained my desired 500 words a day. I wanted to talk about it because I need to justify it for myself as to why I'm slacking off.

And in doing so, I might even end up justifying to myself why I should ignore all that and just get on with the 500 words a day again.

There's a lot of people out there going through a lot harder experiences than I have been.

"I complained about having no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet."

We can always find something stressful and overwhelming in our lives, but we have to find a way to get through it. There's no other way forward. We have to be grateful for what we have, and for what we've achieved.

I appreciate the reminder to myself about that.

Best of Melbourne Photos #1

I've been here in Melbourne for almost 3 weeks now, and I've had the chance to get out and about and take a few photos here and there. Here's a link to where you can view...

The Best of Melbourne Photos #1

Please enjoy!

Alan Seeks A Boss

I found some websites yesterday talking about finding a boss that you'd love to work for instead of simply finding a job. I fell in love with the idea! Everyone out there looking for work is doing it the same way - all applying for jobs online, competing with dozens or even hundreds of others for the same position.

I've been doing the same thing for the past 4-5 months, just like all the other job seekers out there, but it hasn't worked for me this time around. So far, of course. This time around thee environment has been phenomenally bad. It's been on my mind that I need to try something different.

I then found this article talking about How many job ads are fake, and it reminded me of how many times I've wasted my time applying for jobs that aren't actually real. I shared it to friends on Facebook with these comments:

The number of times I've applied for jobs that have ended up being fake over the past year has been shocking, and seems to be an increasing trend. I've personally seen position descriptions for jobs that require specific experience only internal staff have, because they've already got an internal person in mind and are simply following the process they're obliged to follow.

And of course there's also the jobs I've applied for which have been advised to me are 'market tests', advertised simply to see if there's any interest in a possible role that they've got no budget for yet. I've appreciated those agents that have told me to not waste my time, but always been angry at those agents pushing for your interest in a fake job so they can prove to their client that there is interest, and hopefully get them to create the job. It's only after the client doesn't go through with it that the agent advises my application was for a fake job.

It's been a really frustrating time, trying to find work. It inspired me in February to try and create work instead, and I started my own web design business. But then yesterday I was inspired to find a boss I want to work with, instead of finding a job that I might not like. The result has been really exciting!

So I was inspired to do something to create the kind of change that I want. I worked on it into the night last night, going to bed around midnight, and then continued it today, until I was finally happy with it about mid afternoon.

www.alanseeksaboss.com

All I need to do now is share it out to the world and have it go viral so that hundreds of excellent bosses can see it and decide they want to apply for the role of being my boss!

Please help me with this by sharing it out to the world!

Use Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Tumblr... I don't care what you use, I just hope you can help me reach as many people as possible!

It would be awesome to be able to find a great and rewarding job by seeking a boss to apply for the role. It's creative, it's fresh, and it's exciting to think about how this might turn out!

Life comes first

One of the things that has always been important for me is to maintain my enjoyment of life, and I've always treated my life as more important than my work. I have never lived to work, I've always worked to live. It's often resulted in me feeling a bit sad as I've seen workmates work 10 or 12 hour days because their work has been more important to them than the rest of their life.

I know it's everyone choice as to what they do in their life, and how they want to do it, but I'm also aware of how much they're missing out on in their life because they're far too busy working. They miss spending quality time with their children, and they miss important events like school plays or even birthdays. Or some occasion important to their wife, or their husband. All because they feel they have to work their asses off in order to get paid so they can pay the bills.

I've never bought into the programming that I exist only to please the managers or the companies that I've worked for over the years. Thankfully most of the managers I've worked for have been of similar mind to me, and have done their 8 hours a day and then gone home. But there's been a few here and there who have done their 12 hour days and make it quite clear that they expect their subordinates to do the same.

Most people are too afraid for the security of their job that if they're asked to stay back or even if it's implied, then they'll work extra hard to make sure they keep that job.

And meanwhile, life passes them by, and all those things that they wished they could have been part of, are all gone.

It's never been me, and I doubt it'll ever be me. I think it's also why having my own business appeals to me so much, because I can set my own hours, and my own time, in accordance with what's important to me and the rest of my life. If I need to do a few 12 hour days, then I can at least schedule the work around the other events that I need or want to be part of.

Freedom.

Most people don't know what it's like. They don't know that they can take control of their situation and create freedom for themselves rather than continue being slaves, while forcing them to miss out on their life. They don't know that they could find a different job that gives them more freedom. Or they could start their own business and create the freedom for themselves.

Freedom is a luxury most people don't have, but they could have - if they really wanted it. But for one reason or another, they don't really want it. They prefer the sweet illusion of stability than the harsh reality of insecurity.

I think the harsh reality of insecurity has become a pattern throughout my life, but I'm happy that I've always had the time for all those occasions and people that are truly important to me.

As I move through my life, I'm going to continue focusing on making sure that my life is more important to me than my work. I'll always work to live, never live to work.

Which side do you lean towards? Do you live to work, or do you work to live?

Simple is good

One of the things that's been important to me is simplicity, and even though I've tried to use images in my website designs, I've always tried to find some kind of balance between simplicity and including imagery. I know that images help a website look better, but really, my own focus has mostly been on the material that I write.

And to be honest with you, it's been annoying having to find photos online that seem relevant to the content, when I don't really feel like making the content about the photos.

So I found a new blog theme tonight that I really like. It's one that's designed for accessibility on computers and mobile devices, while retaining its simplicity. I fell in love with it, and just had to use it. (And of course, being a Scanner, I love finding new and more interesting things to play with!)

Here's a few screenshots of how the display resizes according to the dimensions of the display it's being viewed on.

Normal size:



Smaller size:



Smartphone size:



 

And another thing that I like about this particular theme is that it has much better styling for the display of comments, so it's really obvious which comments are in reply to previous comments, as well as looking great! That was something that was bothering me about the previous theme, and other themes that I've been playing with - very few of them actually look at appropriate style controls for the comments, preferring to instead focus on everything else.

I'm happy now!

Oh, and you might have noticed I've added a custom avatar of myself. That was an enjoyable time this evening, trying to create something that looked like me. Did I succeed?



Close enough is good enough.  :)