What is Happiness?
As Autumn's blog points out, August is Happiness Happens Month. According to the dictionary, happiness is a "state of well-being or contentment", although many people would put a specific face on what makes them happy. To be honest, I've never been too ambitious. I've never expected a lot from life. I've never been accused of being an "over-achiever". Maybe that's part of why I've always considered myself a fairly happy person. I've gone with the flow, accepting life's ups and downs, and floated merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, through the dream of life. But I realize most people aren't this way. And fund raisers, by definition, cannot be content with what they have, but must constantly strive to achieve more for their organizations. That's where training can bring some measure of happiness, I believe.
Happiness Training?
For those of you who want contentment and a feeling of well-being when using FundRaiser software (and I suggest that it would increase your overall happiness with your work) then be aware that every hour you spend learning about how to use the software will pay you back in many hours of frustration and/or confusion avoided. I can't tell you how many times I've heard someone in class say "I wish I had taken this training long ago. It would have saved me so much time and aggravation", or some similar statement. The truth is that no database program worth its salt is going to be totally intuitive to use. If it has any power, it will require learning the steps to harness the power. Most folks wouldn't consider just jumping into a plane and trying to take off without any training. They know the consequences of crashing. So don't just jump into the driver's seat of your database program (FundRaiser) without first learning some of the controls. Otherwise you put your most valuable data at risk of crashing and burning.
The Great State of Contentment...
If you want to live in this state (and it's a wonderful place to be), you'll need to plan ahead, train in advance, move a bit slowly at first, like taxiing down a runway, and then, when you're ready, you'll discover that you can just "take off" and accomplish what you need in the way of fund raising record keeping. Start with the Overview training class, then branch off to other areas of interest, like Coding & Spare Fields, or Reports, or Word Processing & Mail Merge, or Groupings, or... ? Many classes await you behind the doors of the Customer Portal of our website, and you can sign up for live classes as well on our training calendar. Whether in video form, or live webinars, training awaits you, as does a state of contentment, whenever you're ready to be happy.