Know Thyself

This maxim is so true.  And in the great words of Lao Tzu, “He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.”  The last several weeks have been a slow enlightenment on my part, especially on the professional front.  And yet I fell into my old ruts.  The classic “right order”.  I’ve been wanting to post on a bunch of topics recently, but haven’t had a chance to pull the pictures from my camera for my Phoenix trip last month.  Great time visiting with family and celebrating my cousin Rachel’s graduation three weeks ago.  And I took a lot of photos - some would say an “obnoxious” amount!  And considering half of my reading audience was on that trip, I really wanted to get the post up.  But it’s holding things up!  I promise I will post, but not today, in the meantime, I’m moving on.

1) House Project

On the home front, I jumped the hurdle and moved on for my loft project.  I consciously didn’t book much for the last two weekends and started chipping away on the project.  I had moved “most” of my stuff out of the way, and ripped out “most” of the carpet last year.  I realize that one reason for the break from the project is that I had started it when Walter was still around and would keep me company and working up there without him only made his loss more front and center.  But time slowly works it magic and I realized I was able to work again on that project.  Except I got stuck on the last bits of moving and ripping.  There is a strange order of installation such that the carpet was put in first and then the loft railing.  Simple enough, remove the railing, pull out the carpet underneath and then put the railing back - no problem.  Well I was wrong on that front.  I finally just gave up having it perfect last weekend and cut the carpet around the post and slowly cleaned up the edges so you can’t really tell there is still carpet there.  I think in the end most people won’t notice the difference.

Once I got over those road blocks, I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  This weekend was sweaty work of patching, sanding and prepping the surface before painting.  I came to the conclusion that I do need another round of patching and sanding to get it the way I want it - otherwise I will be kicking myself later I didn’t do the little extra work now versus the lot of extra work later.  But it’s invigorating to not be stuck anymore.  I’m hopeful I can get off work early enough this week to crank out the second round of patching and sanding so that I have enough drying time to start applying a few coats of paint this weekend.

The heat and humidity are creeping in so the pressure is on to get this done now.  Plus everything is wedged into a back space and I can’t get to a lot of stuff anymore.  My final moving of stuff including a lot of stuffing stuff out of the way.  So, for example, if I need my passport, it will be a chore to get.  Although I do know where it is.  I have the drive and motivation to get this project done!

 

2) Work Mindset

I’ve also been doing a lot of wrestling with the work situation and have had an enlightenment moment last month which has changed everything for me.  So much so that I’ve been thinking of starting a parallel blog to write about all the realizations and thoughts so that I don’t make this blog too work centric.  I’ve lost what the seed was for the turning point, but it finally clicked.  And man, “mind over matter” makes a world of difference, whether it’s work, sports, or relationships.  I was getting burnt out and overwhelmed with work before but now I have a renewed energy.  Instead of letting things bog me down I’m the one in control.  It basically boils down to me moving from one rung up to the next.  I had the same type of “growing” pains as I moved into project management and then up into department management and now, the hardest transition, is to the leadership role.  Several things helped propel me.  One was a Time Management class I signed up through my local community courses my town puts on.  I spent a Saturday afternoon developing a good tool set.  Actually, I already had the tools and was using it downward -  for clients and teaching my staff how to use the tools but I wasn’t using them upward - using them to manage senior management.  And last week I went to a luncheon and heard Betsy  Myers speak.  Perfect timing and it really hit a note with me.  I’m excited too because we all walked away with her book, Take the Lead.  So things have gone 180 for me at work.  I’m probably more busy than ever, but I’m invigorated and seeing the light.

 

3) Movie Premiere

June 20^th is on my calendar - is it on yours?  That’s when Jersey Boys is coming to the theaters.  I meant to post this several months ago.  I was in the dentist office, thumbing through a magazine and there was John Lloyd Young.  We went to high school together.  He was my date (as friends) to the Sophomore Hop and to the Senior Reception (Junior Prom was the big event at my school).  I was going to dig out an old pre-dance picture the parents took, to post and then realized I didn’t want that thing floating around the internet.  Just imagine me with a perm - very cringe worthy.  Anyways, I thought I had posted about seeing him as Frankie in the Jersey Boys production on Broadway but looks like I only posted about my first pass at trying to get to see the show but all the student tickets sold out quickly (that you had to wait in line for).  I ended up going to NYC a second weekend and in the end probably had the best seat in the house - it was marvelous and a shame I didn’t write down the experience - ugh.  I do have this post about when he won the Emmy for his role back in 2006.  He moved out to LA a year later and has had bit parts here and there but nothing big.  And then all of a sudden, there he is in the random magazine I picked up at my dentist office.  He’s the lead in the new movie directed by Clint Eastwood.  How cool is that!  I can’t wait to go see him on the big screen. 

 

There’s more but that’s all the time I have for today.