Reclaiming Life

Walking......

2010-05-02T19:04:00.000-07:00

I'm not ready to run a marathon. However, I can still walk a mile or two. The short term plan is to get a regular routine going. The goal would be to be walking 20 plus miles a week. Last week, I walked 7 miles in just under 2 hours. Probably too much for one hike but a start non the less.

This is a journey. So where am I starting out? last weigh in was 259 lbs. This is a very sad number. The final goal is to average 5 lbs a week for the duration of my severance. If i can do that, I will lose roughly 80lbs. I have been in the 180's in more than 15 years.

This is one part of my new claim on life!

Job Search

2010-04-28T03:41:00.000-07:00

Finding a job today is different than you parents job search. Today you have to do homework. That's right homework! You need to understand the needs of the company you are trying to get a job with.

It is no longer enough to have a good resume and cover letter. Human resources professionals are overrun. The ease at which we can apply to job announcements make their jobs almost impossible.

I went to a fantastic seminar Monday night. The speaker presented the topic of making your resume 1in 35 instead 1 of 1000. Odds seem a little better at 35 to 1, not such a long shot. Dan Guelzo spoke about ways to leverage Google and Linkedin to enhance your job search and do your homework.

The best jobs are never advertised in the newspaper. How do you find them? the key is networking!

Kick in the Butt

2010-04-24T15:06:00.000-07:00

Sometimes needed changes are forced upon us rather than us choosing them. This last week I got to have just change. My job was eliminated! After almost six years, the management decided to reduce costs by ending mine and several others employment. In many ways, this came with very little surprise. You did not need to be Nostradamus to see that the end was near.

What now? For starters I am going to be a good bit more active in posting to this blog. I have decided to focus on four areas of life and make weekly post related to each. The areas are health, job search, service and my relationship with Jesus Christ.

Serving Others

2009-05-19T07:23:00.000-07:00

Would you like coffee or tea with that? Okay not literally being someones waiter. But, that may be just the mindset you need to adopt. Serving others is a relatively easy thing to do once you commit to it.

I am currently working with a friend of mine at church. He works in construction. His goal in life is to own his own contracting business. I understand a little how contracting works but certainly not the nails and wall boards of that business.

So how do I serve him? My first objective is to help him understand his dream. I ask him a lot of questions and help him define what he wants his business to be. That is just the beginning. I serve by encouraging him. I hold him accountable for making progress. The second is much harder than the first.

There is a side benefit from serving him. I can't be a hypocrite. I to want to do something different. I have a dream. What are the steps that I need to take? At the beginning of the year I talked about going back to school to earn a masters degree. It's now time to make some progress.

Serving others is a relatively simple concept to execute. You just have to be willing to do what the answer to these questions. What can I do for you? How Can I help you? Then acknowledge that it is not about you.

The Journey Continues

2009-03-29T19:35:00.000-07:00

I find myself in curious place. I have never received a poor performance appraisal until now. My performance last year was less than stellar to say the least. The main reason for me is easy to identify, do I enjoy what I do right now, not exactly. So the review was not a big surprise.

Be careful of what you ask God for. You may get more of a push than you are ready for. That said, I have opportunity to do something truly amazing. If my ideas are well received, I may be able to take section my company that is a point of shame for my management and bring it to life. This part of the company has always been perceived as a necessary evil. It has received little attention and does not strive to be much.

I told a friend of mine I feel kind of like Peter. The first foot out of the boat was scheduling a meeting with the head of our business unit. The second was actually having the meeting. So now that I am completely on the water. I must place my trust in the Lord that he will see me through. The upside, many of my ideas are consistent with his. My biggest fear was not if he said no but said yes instead. Right now I have a maybe which means go back, prepare some more and put the plan together.

Not So Random Acts

2009-01-25T20:10:00.000-08:00

Too often today, we claim we are to busy, or have to be somewhere to help someone. Oprah devoted show to the concept of random acts of kindness.

Do they really have to be random? How about we do them on purpose?

You may have seen the movie "Pay It Forward". This movie portrays the way purposeful acts of kindness should work. Each of us who receives a blessing from someone should help even more people. There is a wonderful feeling that we can when we help someone in need.

We need to keep these precepts in our thoughts all the time. You can be the miracle that someone needs that day to deliver them. Being a Christian, I will tell you that God has placed and will place me where I can help someone. It is important that we understand that it is for his glory not ours.

To I choose to invest in others.

A Beautiful Thing to See

2009-01-20T06:17:00.000-08:00

Each year my church has a flag processional over the weekend leading up to the remembrance of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. It is a celebration of the diversity of this country and of our church. We have people who either are immigrating from or have heritage from more than 70 nations around the world.

So you are probably asking, "How does this fit in here?". I am taking a holistic approach to reclaiming life which includes investing in others. My friend Stephen recently was granted status here in the United States. I gave him a US flag as gift to celebrate his change in status.

Over the course of the weekend he marched several times with his native flag from Kenya. But during the last procession, he carried the US flag. That was a beautiful thing to see. More impressive was the words that he spoke, "This is my Flag!, my personal flag".

To often, we take for granted what the flag represents. I am not sure if he fully understood what he said. For me it spoke volumes to what America is truly about.

Hatching a plan

2009-01-13T08:10:00.000-08:00

While it is still early in the process, I am beginning to formulate a plan. I have started to make desposits into the areas body and spirituality. I need to work on my vocation.

Often I have thought that I am called to be a teacher of some sort. While, it is a noble profession. Some of the places you could teach leave a lot to be desired. I have set my goal on teaching at the university level. The idea is that I at least want someone who wants the student to be there. Whether, it is the student themselves or thier parents.

Ok what needs to happen? I have identified the school I plan to attend to earn Masters in Information Systems. Now I need to take the GRE test. Short term I need to research study aides for the GRE test. Then make an assessment as to when I will be ready. Ugh, I hate standardized test.

For those of you who might be preparing for the GRE or the GMAT, I will share the resources that I find good, bad or indifferent. Then place a value on thier effectiveness.

If you have reccommendations please email me jim.stierle@gmail.com.

Where to start?

2009-01-10T08:36:00.000-08:00

So where do I start to reclaim my life?

Do I start with my body? Do change my career? Do I focus on my spirituality? How about finances? or even better my family.

I have needs to address in each of these areas. I have not formulated a complete plan yet on how I am going to take back my life. I do know that I need to make investments in all of the areas I have listed. I am going to start with baby steps. Making small deposits in each of these accounts. My hope is that there will be compound interest.

Today, I started making deposits in the body and spirituality accounts. There are several members of the church I go to that are combining walking with reading the Bible. While to some this may seem like an odd combination. I think for me they perfect sense. We all are reading the version and chapters in the Bible and then discussing them while we walk. This gives an opportunity to share insights and revelation. More importantly, our focus changes from being on a walk to the chapters we have read. How will this help me grow? I have been a Christian my entire life but have never made it out of the shallow end of the pool when it comes to read God's word. It seems like spiritual growth will be a natural result. Secondly, I stepped on the scale and weighed in at 265lbs. The exercise alone will improve my overall well being.

I think the key to my success will be accountability. I believe this group will be key to bring fulfillment in these two areas of my life.

I know this is early in the journey. I intend to explore different ways for making effective changes in my life. As I try things out, I will share the results of what worked form me and what did not.

Not Satisfied……

2009-01-09T17:12:00.000-08:00

I find myself about to turn 41 and my life is not what I had expected it would be. Don’t misunderstand me. I love my wife and my son. I would not change them for a moment. I do, however, feel that life has somehow passed me by. This leads me to believe that I have short-changed my family and friends.

I am starting this blog to document the journey I am about to go on. My goal is to find personal fulfillment in all aspects of my life. I have lost time. I have lost health. I have lost wealth. Most importantly I have lost relationships. There are many facets of my life that need to be reclaimed. My hope is that documenting my journey will inspire others to take back what they have lost.

James A. Michener has the perfect quote for what I want for my Life.
“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he's always doing both.”