Take Attitude To New Heights Try Perking Up Your Professional Perspective By Using Seasonal Spirit To Your Advantage

Thu., July 20, 1995

Cynthia Hanson Chicago Tribune

Summertime - and working is difficult. It’s hot. It’s sunny. And the entire world seems to be on vacation, making it impossible to get anything accomplished.

But you can use the seasonal spirit to your professional advantage. According to Ann McGee-Cooper, Ph.D., author of “You Don’t Have to Go Home From Work Exhausted: A Program to Bring Joy, Energy and Balance to Your Life” (Bantam, $10.95), summer is the perfect time to invigorate your perspective and ignite your creativity.

Here are nine tips that will translate into dividends at work:

Change a habit. Do you take the same route to work every day? Consider other commuting options. Do you always eat lunch in the company cafeteria? Vow to go to an outdoor cafe every week. It only takes a month to rid yourself of a habit that can constrict your attitude or sap your productivity, says McGee-Cooper.

Refresh your surroundings. Cleaning your desk and putting up new artwork are easy ways to bring the outdoors indoors and stimulate your thinking.

Get moving. Instead of logging more hours at your desk, swim, cycle, jog or dance your way to better decision-making and innovative ideas. No time to exercise? Think again. Maybe your boss will allow you to leave early on Friday afternoons to play beach volleyball if you make up the time on Tuesday mornings. “When my body works well, my mind works well,” says Anne Flett-Giordano, producer of ” Frasier,” who regularly skates, gardens and swims, and who used part of her recent seasonal hiatus from the Emmy-award-winning sitcom to go white-water rafting in Montana.

Rediscover daydreaming. Whether you’re perched at your computer or sprawled across a chaise lounge at poolside, daydream about your future. What would you like to do next in your career? What will it take to get there? “Every day declare two to five minutes for daydreaming breaks,” McGee-Cooper says. “It will help you figure out your goals and get focused.”

Work on relationships. You’ll increase your effectiveness if you improve a strained relationship with a colleague. “You might say, ‘Susan, I sense we could work together better,”’ suggests McGee-Cooper, a Dallas-based management consultant specializing in creative problem-solving. “Would you be willing to have lunch with me?” Then discuss in a non-blaming way how to improve the situation.

Expand your social network. Do all of your friends look alike and work in the same profession? If so, it’s time to add new people to your life. McGee-Cooper recommends socializing with people outside your age group and cultural background. Summer activities, such as outdoor picnic concerts, offer opportunities to get to know new people.

Learn something new. Volunteer work, painting classes, even language lessons can inspire ideas you can use on the job. That’s what happened when Flett-Giordano worked on a mayoral campaign in Long Beach, N.J., during her show hiatus in May 1994. “I was determined for our candidate to win, but I thought to myself, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if he told me something crazy about himself? What would I do?”’ she says. Flett-Giordano parlayed that concept into the popular episode in which Dr. Frasier Crane endorses a congressional candidate who then confides he has been abducted by aliens.

Get out of your reading rut. It’s the perfect time to pick up something different from your usual fare.

Plan a getaway. Can’t take a vacation this summer? Devote some time to planning one later. “Organizing a trip gets you excited and gives you something to look forward to,” McGee-Cooper says. “If you don’t plan to take time off, you’ll miss the positive energy that’s derived from the anticipation of doing something fun.”

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