It’s been a while since I’ve done a round-up. So here’s some news, links, and the like.
First, What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast — the paperback — will be out August 27. Amazon is currently pricing it at $8.40, which is cheaper than the three e-books bought separately, and Audible is pricing it at $7.95, which is also cheaper than purchasing the three separately. (B&N has it for $11.48). I realize many blog readers have already read the ebooks, but if you do order the paperback, please shoot me an email (lvanderkam at yahoo dot com) and I’ll send you a little e-booklet I wrote called “9 Ways to Make More Me Time” as a thank you. I appreciate your support!
I’m a few weeks into my new gig writing for Fast Company. Some of the pieces that have been most read are “What Successful People Do During Lunch” (of course!) and “Monotasking is the New Multitasking.“
I’d love to feature more “real people” stories in future posts. Right now I’m particularly looking for people who have successfully changed the job they have into the job they want. Have you done some “job crafting” to change who you work with, or your tasks, in order to bring more joy to your job? How did you make that happen? Please let me know (lvanderkam at yahoo dot com).
I was intrigued by Judith Warner’s piece for the New York Times on the Opt-out Generation Wants Back In. I’ll write more about that one next week. Here’s Lisa Belkin’s original piece from 2003.
And on a totally different note, here’s a story from the LA Times about a young mom fighting cancer and hoping to see her 2-year-old grow up. She needs a bone marrow match. Her story is bringing some national attention to the difficulty people from minority groups have in finding matches — and the need for broad recruitment to donor registries.
New York state saw proficiency rates on state tests drop precipitously after aligning the tests with the more rigorous Common Core. Some people are trying to score political points on the drop, but kudos to NY for doing this. One of the scandals of NCLB is how easy some states have made their tests. You get what you measure, but measurements should mean something.
Oh goodness, I couldn’t finish that article about the mom with cancer because I’d be covered in tears, but shared on facebook with a plea for signing up to registries. 2nd story I read today about a 30-something mother with cancer…breaking my heart.
I know – I was reading it while printing out a document and was sobbing standing by my printer. Wow.
The story about cancer definitely puts the other stories in perspective. I didn’t think the story did a good job though of talking about whether or not being a minority or their background makes it harder to find a donor. I went on to the register to be a donor Web site and honestly I find it too complicated. Does anyone know if bone marrow screenings/or donations are done like public blood drives? Or if there is a quick and easy way to register yourself and/or a way say for Hispanics or Asians to get on to their own registries. I’d love to get involved in that issue.
@Cara- sorry, I should have linked to the second article. The LA Times one was more of a straightforward profile/feature. There was a piece in the Washington Post mentioning her too that spoke more about the shortage of minority matches: http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-08-05/national/41085742_1_stem-jeffrey-chell-ancestors
Cara, I registered at bethematch.org. It was easy. You add your name/info and they will mail you a cheek swab kit for DNA. Once they get your DNA (which can identify you as a match for someone….the genetics basically gets around the race/ethnicity question…certain markers are more common in certain ethnicities and are more accurate then “self-identification” of race) you are in the registry and can be contacted only if you are a potential match for someone in need. But, keep in mind that donating bone marrow is an invasive and painful procedure so you have to be willing to go through it (look it up before you register and make sure its something you can do).
My friend is a dean at Princeton. She gives a big speech to the young women there who are still largely white children of stay at home moms and upper middle class. She tells the women that they should work b/c their men might leave them. The statistics on this do not back her up on this being the reason for work. It is more likely the husband will be laid off or out of work on wall street than that he will dump her. The white upper middle class have statistically some of the best marriages in america, largely on the back of the stay at home mother. I thought that the article brought up some interesting points about marriage and what is required of working professionals to be 110% emotionally available in marriage that would be interesting to look at. I’ll post a link here to an article from Psychology today which I think is one of the better things I’ve read on marriage though it doesn’t really deal with the issues mentioned in these articles. I think one of the reasons you dont’ see more honest discussion on marriage in America is folks feel it shows weakness to admit any attempt at betterment in this area so we are left with a pop culture that romanticizes things like having an affair. I’ve been surprised how much on prime time TV right now is about how great it is to have an affair with a married man or woman, which I think is wrong and probably inaccurate.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201112/are-you-the-right-mate
I like this article b/c it talks about how 90% of marital discontent can be resolved by working on one’s own shxt. That is self actualizes yourself not just in work but in your own behavior and accept and own your own imperfections first and this I do think can be a valuable aspect of marriage. It can be the basis for self improvement.
Not sure if you track all of the blurbs about your books, but the latest Weight Watchers magazine has a quick blurb on Successful People/Breakfast on p. 16.
Hope it’s doing well! You already got me with ebooks although I may succumb to the actual book. 🙂
post the link the link to the wwatchers successful breakfast
It was the print version….
@Arden – thanks for letting me know – I’ll try to find a copy!