Yup, that’s exactly how you feel. Forget sucking it up! Try some real tips and tools based in lived experience so you stop feeling like a burnt-out triple-decker grilled cheese sandwich. Your courageous advocate Carol-Ann says it like it is. And that’s no bologna!
Which comes first? Respect or respect? Are you as perplexed by this odd question as participants of my leadership development, performance coaching and communication skills programs have been in corporate Canada for over 30 years? If so, good!Read More
We’re rapidly making our way through the SUPPORT acronym of the COMPLETE SUPPORT you deserve as a caregiver. We’ve already detailed the importance of Sustainability, Uncompromising (standards), Professionalism and Presence.Read More
As spiritual teacher and former clinical psychologist, Ram Daas, says in his book by the same title: “Be here now.”
Easier said than done for caregivers and care providers alike! Each face so many competing daily priorities, it’s challenging (to say the least) to remain focused on everything that needs to get done. Still, there are some distinct things that service providers can do to ease stress for all concerned.Read More
Have you ever experienced this type of interaction in a store?
Employees are more interested in talking endlessly with their colleagues (to use the term loosely) rather than serving you. If you actually dare try to gain their attention, you get either annoyance in the form of rolled eyeballs or passive-aggressive resistance/avoidance. You are an inconvenient interruption. They can’t wait to get rid of you so they can go back to what’s ‘really’ important – like spending their shift gabbing on the phone with friends.Read More
Raise your hand if you are employed in this kind of workplace… The senior leadership team has just spent days at a lavish multi-day retreat. Upon their triumphant return, the latest ‘change management’ brainchild is announced with fanfare. The glowing initiative lands with a thud amongst employees who grudgingly kept the home fires burning in the exalted ones’ absence.Read More
Here we are into the second half of the COMPLETE SUPPORT Manifesto for Caregivers. Under the COMPLETE acronym, we’ve so far tackled: Caring; Openness; Maturity; Partnership; Loyalty; Excellence; Tribe; and Exacting.
Under the SUPPORT banner, we’re now forging into: Sustainability; Uncompromising (standards); Professionalism; Presence; Organized; Respect; and Truth. Today, we start with Sustainability – which refers to staying the course and following through for the long haul.Read More
Interestingly, this post is being written on Labor Day. Historically, the first Monday in September is a creation of the labor movement devoted to the strong social and economic achievements of American (and international) workers.
Toward that end,Read More
Let’s start this week’s post by recapping where we’re at in the COMPLETE SUPPORT “Manifesto” I believe all caregivers of aging parents are entitled to.
We’ve already covered from the COMPLETE acronym the qualities of: Caring; Openness; Maturity; Partnership; Loyalty; Excellence. We’re dealing today with “T” standing for Tribe. Next week we’ll address Exacting – as in, demonstrating impeccable standards of precision.Read More
“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say: ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well’.”
Who do you think said this? If you guessedRead More
Our last couple of blogs have focused on “The Mixed Bag of Family Summers” and “How to Survive Extended Family Vacations”. The first addresses the underlying emotional dynamics that render summer holidays spent with aging parents so crazy-making. The second offers practical coping strategies – whether they’re staying with you, you with them or traveling together to a third location.Read More
