c'est la vie

Do you know someone who suffers from an addiction? No? Then you are not paying attention.  Addicts do not all move through life with huge illuminated signs in front of them, declaring their addiction.  Addictions and addicts are around us, amongst us, known and unknown at different times.  Yesterday I had reason to visit someone in a Rehab Centre.  Not a family member, perhaps not even a friend, more of an acquaintance.  I think I have spoken to him face to face only once, the rest of the time the interaction is by phone as he calls me just, I think, to have me listen to him for a few minutes.  A reaching out.  I don't actually know.  This is not his first visit to Rehab, nor do I know if it will be his last, but he is there, being visited by his family, but no-one else from his life.  It is sad to think that there is not a colleague from his office who will visit, not even a friend.  I wonder how you get to that point. I don't...

Do you have a friend who suffers from depression? Not? Then you are not paying attention. Research is stating more and more often that in every one of our friendship / family circles there is at least one person who does.  Either it is openly known or seen, or carefully hidden by that person.   Depression is an illness.  It is not a choice like what movie to see, what day to go to the dentist, what colour top to put on or whether or not to have a 2nd cup of coffee.   Depression does not jump up and wave a large flag in your face when it is about to swoop. It is either there all the time, or sidles up to you every now and then, usually without warning, visits for a while and then slithers off.  You do not get to choose, it is not like a hotel booking where you say "five nights please".  When diagnosed with any other serious illness, people would normally find themselves treated with great sympathy and genuine caring.  The person who has th...

When someone asks you what you do, what do you say? Do you give them your official job title, do you give them an informal reference to what your job is, do you describe your tasks and leave your job title open or do you simply shrug and mutter something about your job, making yourself sound as irrelevant as possible? I read an interesting article recently, via Twitter and that got me thinking about the above.  How do YOU see you, in your job.  Because how we see ourselves can either be better or worse, or sometimes exactly like others see us.  That brings me to the point of professional purpose.  S Poswolsky says that in work we should learn our purpose, instead of just trying to find it.  Your job may have general definitions of what you are supposed to do.  And you could spend years trying to find your purpose in the what and why of your job and those definitions.  He has a strong point in saying that you should learn your purpose .... in y...