Answer frequently, once in a while, or never to the following:

1. You have trouble getting out of bed in the morning?

2. You want to sleep all the time.

3. You have been thinking of suicide.

4. Nothing seems interesting.

5. You are no longer attracted to your partner, and you don’t know why.

6. Little things upset you more than they should.

7. You can’t find a job doing what you want to do.

8. You keep getting into fights with friends and breaking off friendships.

9. You can’t make up your mind about important things.

10. You’ve had a series of accidents or minor illnesses.

11. You go on buying sprees, getting things you don’t need.

12. Your allergies are getting worse.

13. You can’t sleep at night.

14. You’re eating (drinking, smoking, fighting, etc.) more than is good for you.

15. You burst into tears without knowing why.

16. You are afraid to be alone.

17. You find it hard to make new friends.

You should strongly consider therapy if you answered “once in a while” for ten or more of the above, or “frequently” for three or more.

Learn how to take daily mini-vacations. You may like to do them at preconceived times; such as, 10 AM, 2 PM or more often.

More help for your stress:

(1)  Stress at work getting you down? How to manage job burnout from the digerati life uses the burnout definition from the Mayo Clinic: “Burnout is a state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion caused by long-term exposure to demanding work situations.”

This post reminds us that our life is out of balance. It recommends: exercise, learning how to do deep breathing, treating yourself to time spent with loved ones, changing jobs, learning how to say no, making rational decisions about medication and alcohol,  get a good night’s sleep, eat well, have great sex, and read good books.

(2)  In Are you afraid to say no at work?, Anita Bruzzese helps us begin to understand when saying no is the best job decision we can make. Only you can maintain a healthy work environment for yourself. I think of all our emotional, mental and physical responses as energy. Then I make a decision to use it positively.

Anita lists suggestions for saying no:

Be willing to ask for what you need.

Again use the deep breathing. Deep breathing is my first response when I begin to feel slightly anxious. Take a breath and hold it for 30 seconds–then slowly release the air. After 2 or 3 times, you’ll feel like a new person.

Be sure to make wise time decisions at work.

If your boss asks for a new task on top of others, ask her/him how you should prioritize these. He or she may not realize the others jobs you’re juggling.

1. LinkedIn
   LinkedIn isn’t an old-fashioned job board, even though it provides a way to search job listings posted by members. Instead, LinkedIn’s value lies in how easy it is to connect with other people working in your industry as well as professionals in general. Many job openings aren’t listed: recruiters would much rather build a network where they can search for the right hire. LinkedIn serves that purpose — but recruiters won’t find you if you aren’t on the site.
2. USAJobs
   The entire U.S. federal government directs all of its job postings to USAJobs, many of which never make it to other job listing sites. While some of us may not have thought of working for ‘the man’ as an option, the U.S. government is usually hiring for tens of thousands of jobs at a time — in just about every career field. Writers, engineers, accountants: if it’s a job, the federal government is probably hiring.
3. LinkUp
   Many employers skip placing job listings on external boards, keeping their job opportunities a little closer to home. LinkUp uses automatic tools to find jobs listed only on company websites, compiling listings for its users. There aren’t any duplicates — or scams — as you can often find on sites that accept listings from anybody.
4. Idealist
   More and more job hunters are placing an emphasis on finding a job that offers some opportunity to give back. Idealist lists jobs from non-profits and idealist organizations. While the site does include volunteer work, it also includes paid positions as well as internships and consulting opportunities.
5. RealMatch
   A good job interview isn’t that different from a blind date, and RealMatch takes that fact into account. It relies on a set of tests to match you with job opportunities that you’ve displayed a certain level of compatibility with — as well as sending your information to employers looking for someone who meets your profile.
6. JobSerf
   While most job sites these days are free, JobSerf charges $98 per week. For that fee, you get 20 hours of personalized job searching: one of JobSerf’s professionals searches for jobs that meet your criteria and apply to those positions that meet your needs. The price may seem a little steep if you’re only casually looking, but it could be a better fit if you’re seriously job hunting.
7. SimplyHired
   Rather than searching thousands of websites and sorting through job listings that ambitious recruiters have posted all over, I’d suggest checking out SimplyHired. It searches a long list of job listing sites, as well as specific companies’ hiring pages, providing you with a fairly complete picture of your options with just one search.
8. SoloGig
   Just looking for something short-term? SoloGig provides listings of consulting, temporary, contract and freelance opportunities in a broad list of categories. It might not get you a long-term job, but the right project can often help you take your resume up a notch. Furthermore, some of the short-term projects listed on SoloGig are expected to last a year or more.
9. Women for Hire
   While the jobs available through Women for Hire are available to men as well as women, the site provides a special level of support for women who are hunting for jobs. It offers up specialized advice on issues like finding positions that offer help with child care. Women for Hire goes far beyond the traditional job boards to offer specialized help for women looking for new jobs.
10. Job-Hunt
    When you search for a job online, you’ll often get a good picture of the jobs that are available on a national — or even international level. Just because those jobs are available doesn’t mean that you’re ready to pick up and move for them, though. Job-Hunt has a long list of links to job hunting resources by state, giving you a head start on local job leads.

I love working at home. I have been doing this for four years and haven’t got it all figured out yet. But I have learned a lot about myself–how I use over-organizing to avoid doing the things I don’t want to do. Actually the organizing is procrastination. I love reading posts about others who are working from home. Some of the bloggers I read for ideas about working at home are Steve Olson, David Seah,  Steve Pavlina, and David from mytwodollars.

Christine Olson (wife of Steve Olson) has written of her success from starting an online book business at home. The post has a great title: “How a Stay at Home Mom Lives Her Dreams Selling books Online.” She lists the actual steps she took to build her business. Included are great shots of her workspace. She buys her books wholesale and has been in the book business for 12 years generally working 3-4 hours a day and makes $70,000.00 per year. One of the responders to the post,

Even though the people she buys from have businesses online also, she has build her business by good customer relations and attention to detail. She mentions at the end of the post that she wants to continue learning ways technology can become her surrogate employees.

Tim Ferress’s book, The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich , introduces to surrogate employees–virtual assistants. He gives several suggestions for choosing them.

“Get an assistant–even is you don’t need one. (pg. 135) He lists these sites as resources:”

1. “US and Canada ($20. per hour)+): assistu.com, yourviritualresource.com,ivaa.org, canadianva.net, and onlinebusiness manager.com.”
2. “North American and International ($4.00 per hour+: elance.com (search virtual assistant).” Elance is including a podcast from Tim explaining how he uses elance with information from his book.
3. “India:b2kcorp.com ($15.00 per hour+).” Tim states that Brickwork can handle all types and sizes of business needs. “yourmaninindia.com ($6.25 per hour+) handles both business and personal tasks and can work with you in real time as they work 24/7.”

Parent—the foundation of our values, attitudes, beliefs about what life needs to be—our “oughts” and “shoulds” are in our parent. We have an inner nurturing parent as well as an inner judging parent.

Adult—our logical ego state which has our autonomous attitudes and our clear thinking patterns where we make decisions based on facts is our adult.

Child—is our internal state of our remembered thoughts, feelings, and attitudes from our childhood. Our child state is experienced inwardly and expressed outwardly. We have an adapted inner child (conditioned responses) as well as a natural inner child (self-indulgence).

Identify the ego state for each of the following responses.

Choose one of the following 3 responses:

Jim’s response to staying home from work tomorrow:

A. I’m going to play sick for a few days.

B. Mommy’s boy should stay home if he doesn’t feel good.

C. I could get away with it, but I’d have to work harder to make up for it. No point in staying home.

References for transactional analysis:

The ITAA (The International Transactional Analysis Association) has several books and articles available.

TA: The Handbook of Transactional Analysis by Stan Woolams and Michael Brown.

The word “ennea” is Greek for nine and “gram” means model or figure. Hence, the Enneagram is a diagram or star with nine points representing the nine personality patterns. Each of these nine patterns is based on an explicit set of perceptual filters that determine our worldview. Underneath each of the nine patterns is a basic proposition or belief about what you need in life for survival and satisfaction.

As you discover your personality type and the underlying basic proposition, you also will discover what motivates you, your coping strategy and keys to personal development. Read the brief descriptions of the nine types that follow, then click on any of the numbers on the Enneagram diagram below to start the tour of the nine Enneagram types.

Brief descriptions of the nine types

Type One: The Perfectionist believes you must be good and right to be worthy. Consequently, Perfectionists are conscientious, responsible, improvement-oriented and self-controlled, but also can be critical, resentful and self-judging.

Type Two: The Giver believes you must give fully to others to be loved. Consequently, Givers are caring, helpful, supportive and relationship-oriented, but also can be prideful, overly intrusive and demanding.

Type Three: The Performer believes you must accomplish and succeed to be loved. Consequently, Performers are industrious, fast-paced, goal-focused and efficiency-oriented, but also can be inattentive to feelings, impatient and image-driven.

Type Four: The Romantic believes you must obtain the longed for ideal relationship or situation to be loved. Consequently, Romantics are idealistic, deeply feeling, empathetic and authentic to self, but also dramatic, moody and sometimes self-absorbed.

Type Five: The Observer believes you must protect yourself from a world that demands too much and gives too little to assure life. Consequently, Observers seek self-sufficiency and are non-demanding, analytic/thoughtful and unobtrusive, but also can be withholding, detached and overly private.

Type Six: The Loyal Skeptic believes you must gain protection and security in a hazardous world you just can’t trust. Consequently, Loyal Skeptics are themselves trustworthy, inquisitive, good friends and questioning, but also can be overly doubtful, accusatory and fearful.

Type Seven: The Epicure believes you must keep life up and open to assure a good life. Consequently, Epicures seek pleasure and possibilities, and are optimistic, upbeat and adventurous, but also can avoid pain and be uncommitted and self-serving.

Type Eight: The Protector believes you must be strong and powerful to assure protection and regard in a tough world. Consequently, Protectors seek justice and are direct, strong and action-oriented, but also overly impactful, excessive and sometimes impulsive.

Type Nine: The Mediator believes that to be loved and valued you must blend in and go along to get along. Consequently, Mediators seek harmony and are self-forgetting, comfortable and steady, but also avoid conflicts and can be stubborn.

The above excerpt if from our favorite enneagram site,

http://www.enneagramworldwide.com Enneagram Worldwide has a large site with these opportunities:

(1) to explore the enneagram,

(2) to determine your type,

(3) samples explaining the narrative tradition,

(4) the enneagram and spirituality,

(5) the enneagram in relationships,

(6) the enneagram at work,

(7) the enneagram for therapists,

(8) books, tapes and DVDs.

(9) workshops and classes worldwide,

(10) teacher certification, and

(11) the trifold school.

To gather energy, we use either grounding or creative energy. In order to process energy, we use either logic or relationship energy.

The energies are:

1) Relationship energy—working with and being sensitive to others.

2) Logic energy—setting goals, planning action needed and analyzing resources available.

3) Creative energy—looking at new solutions for problems

and possible redirecting to implement change.

4) Grounding energy—getting the job completed on schedule.

To develop energy in each area, we may try the following:

1) Creative energy—we may need to play at solving problems. Turn the solution into a game.

2) Logic energy—we may choose to do some projects that call for measurement, for example, measuring all your rooms to estimate the total floor space available in your room.

3) Relationship energy—we need to practice expressing feelings in intimate situations.

4) Grounding energy—we need to explore our physical world during walks, etc., by noticing colors, smells, sounds, etc., of our world.

Twellow–Connect With People Who Matter (Twitter chats arranged by category)

A Tale of Two Twitter Services

Twitter Blog

Twittelator Pro (For IPhone)

TweetDeck (Enables users to split all Tweets into group specifc columns)

Social Too (Includes Twitter, Identical, Facebook and automates the processes)

TweetSuite (TweetThis Button code)

Twitterfeed (Feed your blog to twitter, identi.ca or ping.fm)

Make a Tweet Plan to Get the Most from Twitter

How to Track Hot Trends -With Twitter

TweetScan (A Way to search Twitter, identi.ca, and other Laconica-based sites)

Twitter Follow Back Tool (Check on all the people who are following you)

20 Things I’ve Learned While Getting Out of Debt

Frugal Millionaires on Investing and Mortgages

The 25 Most Helpful Articles Written by Personal Finance Bloggers

The Razor’s Edge: Lessons in True Wealth

Eight Secrets of Financial Happiness

Paying Cash in a Credit Card World

Concepts in Frugality: Know What You Want

My 2008 Discretionary Spending: Progress and Challenges

Funny How It Takes an Economic Meltdown for People to Realize What Works Financially

Personal Finance Success is Rather Simple, but Not Easy

The blogs and keywords are:

Changemaker: Reinventing Yourself (spirituality–callings–creativity–simplicity–religions–prayer–life mission

Answers By Email (Changemaker Test)   (birth order–career–enneagram–jobs–NLP–MBTI–personality–self-knowledge

Changemaker Groups (ACOA–change–codependency–communities–groups–helping others–ministry–support groups

Changemaker Library (Amazon–books–library–RSS)

Healing For You (balanced life–emotional health–mental health–mindfulness–recovery–spiritual practices–stress reduction–therapy–twelve steps

High Energy Goals (exercise–food–weight loss–goals–diet–fitness)

I introduce the above information to make it clear that each of my blogs is an entity unto itself. It is a shame that those of us who desire to help our readers by offering simplicity with one main topic blogs have to be aware that blog spamming is hard to detect by bots–software not by humans.

I have believed for ten years that Internet search will be done by humans and not by bots. I haven’t used Google for specific searches for over two years. Blogs have helped to locate specific information but are such a vast number that finding them takes a concentrated search each day. RSS has helped to keep track of the blogs we want to follow.

With introduction of all the social media tools available, the search for the information we want is widespread and becoming overwhelming.

So I decided to put my key topics in my six blogs and to become a blog link cataloger. If you are interested in any of the above keywords plus social media, marketing, and online communities, I will be posting key articles by topic for each of the above six blogs.

I believe I have laid the foundation for my being an “expert” in the above keyword areas. Now I am going to use my love of research and organization to bring you up-to-date links for all the keywords above.

So I reinvent myself again–to blog link cataloger. When do I get a pay increase?