So now that I may be heading back to the corporate world of hard work I thought I’d share some thoughts on lessons learned during unemployment. The first relates to “hard work” and during my time off I worked outdoors a great deal doing various projects. The largest of these projects has been home gardening and landscaping.

I spent a great deal planting various crops in my garden at home including bell peppers, tomatoes, corn, watermelons, carrots, green onions and other items. This has been literally the “hardest work” physically that I’ve done in a very long time. In prior years I would have planted one or two tomato plants and perhaps a bell pepper plant and half-heartedly tended the garden during the season. Since I had plenty of free time, there were no excuses for not following through building a great garden. I actually loved working outdoors planting, weeding, and upgrading my backyard. I loved it so much that I’ve built my own trusses with left over pickets from an old fence.

As strange as it may be, working in a garden lifting heavy bags of soil and fertilizer is a much more demanding work out than going to the gym and lifting weights. I can’t explain it but my only guess is that muscles become very efficient when you’re at the gym so the strain on the muscles is entirely different than when you’re juggling bags of fertilizer back and forth throughout the backyard. I still prefer the “targeted” workout at the gym vs. the garden but exercise is exercise nonetheless.

If you ever feel that you’re not making a difference in the world or at the office, try to take a day or weekend and plant some veggies or flowers. You’ll get a really great sense of accomplishment from seeing the butterflies, birds and other insects get to live off of the work you put in. Sure it’s annoying that birds eat your crops but we can’t be too selfish can we?