I watched an entire episode of Oprah this afternoon.
I realize this is fairly typical white-middle-class-woman behavior. But I have been an ardent anti-Oprah-ist for years. Yet good critics know what they are criticizing, so watching an entire episode isn’t really a softening of my stance against avoidance of all things Oprah, right?
Really I watched because I was intrigued. Yes, she hooked me. The show was with some business/life coach…famous…Mark somebody? Maybe? Anyway Oprah had seen a statistic published by CareerBuilder.com that 84% of people are unhappy with their jobs. My first question is, if the survey was done on CareerBuilder.com, isn’t that kind of a self selecting population? Wouldn’t we expect those who are cruising job websites to report dissatisfaction with their work? But such questions do not trouble Oprah. Instead it provided a flashy statistic to get this Marcus somebody on her show.
She and 30 other women took Marcus’ eight session “change your life” workshop to learn how to become happy(ier) in their jobs. Of course four particularly miserable women were profiled through video shorts and given private coaching so they could return to the show and reveal how their lives had changed.
(Forgive the slightly cynical nature of the report. Strict anti-Oprah-ism is hard to filter.)
The major lesson of his workshops, of the episode? Do what you do well. Play to your strengths. Focus on what gives you energy. Use your gifts.
What hooked me about the episode is that this problem, focusing on my strengths instead of my weaknesses is exactly the task that is before me at work. It is the shift I want to accomplish, or at least I want to work to improve the balance between strengths and weaknesses. It is something I have been convinced I need to do for over a year now, I am just not completely sure how to get it done.
Now that I have the full range of pastoral duties on my plate (being the only full-time staff member around), I am becoming ever more aware that some things I do well and some things I don’t. There are parts of my job that are always a huge chore for me, which I dread, which make the whole enterprise more difficult. Unfortunately the time and energy I spend dreading the things at which I am weak pushes against the amount of time I have to do what I do well. I didn’t really need Marcus to tell me that.
I wonder if in the eight week session he talks about how to make the structural changes necessary to fix this strengths/weaknesses problem. Especially when there are no other staff members to pick up the work, but rather lay leadership that must be recruited and nurtured.
Oprah did make the whole life coaching session available to me, to ME, on her website for FREE! But I don’t think I can watch it, I can’t add to her “click total” for the week. I am sure there is a link to Marcus’ book though, complete with the big “O” on the front cover.
One interesting thing about the episode was the way Marcus and Oprah danced around religious language. They said everyone had been given gifts to use, natural strengths that we should use and enhance, this is the way to happiness. (Spiritual gifts given by the God who made us, I say). Also we each have a calling in the world, they said, and we need to find and pursue that calling in order to find fulfillment. Oprah even mentioned paying attention to “God or the divine or the universe or whatever” to help you figure out what your strengths are.
So thanks, Oprah, for the push. I am going to keep working on giving away the parts of my job at which I stink. One other question: How do you get away with having the last half hour of your show involve 1min 45 sec segments followed by 2min 30 sec commercial breaks? I was running on the treadmill while I watched, so I know what you were doing! I guess that’s what happens when you build a kingdom on getting people to buy stuff.
Whoops, guess the anti-Oprah-ism is back. I wont’ be watching tomorrow.
I realize this is fairly typical white-middle-class-woman behavior. But I have been an ardent anti-Oprah-ist for years. Yet good critics know what they are criticizing, so watching an entire episode isn’t really a softening of my stance against avoidance of all things Oprah, right?
Really I watched because I was intrigued. Yes, she hooked me. The show was with some business/life coach…famous…Mark somebody? Maybe? Anyway Oprah had seen a statistic published by CareerBuilder.com that 84% of people are unhappy with their jobs. My first question is, if the survey was done on CareerBuilder.com, isn’t that kind of a self selecting population? Wouldn’t we expect those who are cruising job websites to report dissatisfaction with their work? But such questions do not trouble Oprah. Instead it provided a flashy statistic to get this Marcus somebody on her show.
She and 30 other women took Marcus’ eight session “change your life” workshop to learn how to become happy(ier) in their jobs. Of course four particularly miserable women were profiled through video shorts and given private coaching so they could return to the show and reveal how their lives had changed.
(Forgive the slightly cynical nature of the report. Strict anti-Oprah-ism is hard to filter.)
The major lesson of his workshops, of the episode? Do what you do well. Play to your strengths. Focus on what gives you energy. Use your gifts.
What hooked me about the episode is that this problem, focusing on my strengths instead of my weaknesses is exactly the task that is before me at work. It is the shift I want to accomplish, or at least I want to work to improve the balance between strengths and weaknesses. It is something I have been convinced I need to do for over a year now, I am just not completely sure how to get it done.
Now that I have the full range of pastoral duties on my plate (being the only full-time staff member around), I am becoming ever more aware that some things I do well and some things I don’t. There are parts of my job that are always a huge chore for me, which I dread, which make the whole enterprise more difficult. Unfortunately the time and energy I spend dreading the things at which I am weak pushes against the amount of time I have to do what I do well. I didn’t really need Marcus to tell me that.
I wonder if in the eight week session he talks about how to make the structural changes necessary to fix this strengths/weaknesses problem. Especially when there are no other staff members to pick up the work, but rather lay leadership that must be recruited and nurtured.
Oprah did make the whole life coaching session available to me, to ME, on her website for FREE! But I don’t think I can watch it, I can’t add to her “click total” for the week. I am sure there is a link to Marcus’ book though, complete with the big “O” on the front cover.
One interesting thing about the episode was the way Marcus and Oprah danced around religious language. They said everyone had been given gifts to use, natural strengths that we should use and enhance, this is the way to happiness. (Spiritual gifts given by the God who made us, I say). Also we each have a calling in the world, they said, and we need to find and pursue that calling in order to find fulfillment. Oprah even mentioned paying attention to “God or the divine or the universe or whatever” to help you figure out what your strengths are.
So thanks, Oprah, for the push. I am going to keep working on giving away the parts of my job at which I stink. One other question: How do you get away with having the last half hour of your show involve 1min 45 sec segments followed by 2min 30 sec commercial breaks? I was running on the treadmill while I watched, so I know what you were doing! I guess that’s what happens when you build a kingdom on getting people to buy stuff.
Whoops, guess the anti-Oprah-ism is back. I wont’ be watching tomorrow.
2 comments:
Amy -- interesting -- I think I've heard of this guy (they tend to blend together), but I didn't see the episode. I too am pretty strict in my Oprah O-mission.
I wonder how this idea would do in a conversation with the thought that God often uses our weaknesses as well, like the man born blind in John or like Paul's "thorn in the flesh."
Shoot, now I have to think. Better turn off the smoke alarms...
Brett,
I don't know if God uses our weaknesses specifically as much as God uses weak people to do big things. That's good news!
Paul's "thorn" kept him humble (good thing I have more than one prickly point) but I don't know that it, in its content, was a gift from God.
Interesting to think about. I suppose I wouldn't want to eliminate all struggle from my job...as in isolating it to only the things I feel good about doing. But seeing my weaknesses is an important way to deliver myself from the thought that I can (and should) do everything.
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