The Ultimate Compliment

I've been feeling pretty good about myself lately and have taken the next step to bring goodwill to others. One of my goals for work this year is to be a corporate cheerleader of sorts. I know there will be a lot of changes this year for the company, some good and some not so good, but as a good leader I need to rally the troops when we they are needed and address their concerns so they can do their work.

This past week I've been working on a presentation for my boss' boss. It was stressful and I saw things that I wish I didn't, but I knew how important it was for me to do a great job, to be professional, and to do everything I could to make her job easier.

At the same time I couldn't let my stress bring down the morale of my team. I need them to believe in me and to trust me. They've been asking difficult questions but I felt it was important to answer them as honestly as I could and to explain the reasoning behind such decisions to prevent panic and to squelch any anti-company feelings that would prevent them from getting their job done. It's amazing how little things like a mandatory corporate desktop display can cause employee uproar.

At the end of my stressful week my employees thanked me. They thanked me for keeping such an upbeat attitude during this stressful time because it made work a lot easier and even fun. They thanked me for answering their questions about the upcoming changes. They understood that many things still needed to be addressed and decided but appreciated that I didn't deny that things were going to change and some of them were going to be difficult. And an employee that had more experience on the job than I have been alive told me she admired how professional I am.

While I've always appreciated compliments and atta boys from my boss and the higher ups, I've always valued my employees feedback more. When people under me thank me for doing a good job, for making work a fun place to be, and for being professional and forthcoming with information I feel like I've truly done my job well.

Sometimes corporate life can be rewarding. :)

Getting involved

This month marks my 3 year anniversary of living on the West Coast in the middle of nowhere. In some ways it's hard to believe it's only been 3 years and in other ways I'm sure it's only been two. But alas it's really been 3 and outside of work I don't have any connections here.

I've taken matters into my own hands this last month and have started volunteering to get involved in activities outside of work (hence my lack of posting). My goal is 3 fold:

1. I want to expand my network beyond just people I work with
   
2. I use to be very involved in community activities before moving here and I miss it
3. It looks good on the resume should I end up on the job market

In some ways my motivations are selfish, I want to have a larger support network since I don't have family close by that I can rely on and I'm trying to cover my bases in case I become unemployed. Local involvement will look good as will having connections outside of work that I can draw from. But there is also the element of being engaged in the community that makes you feel good.

I'm currently attending a Citizen's Police Academy which is a lot of fun. I was nervous that I would meet a lot of LE haters but in fact everyone has been incredible nice and in total awe of what LEO and Dispatchers do and what they put up with. A few city council members are attending and I'm also meeting more people that DH works with which is nice. I did a sit along in dispatch for a few hours last weekend and all I can say is that dispatchers have an incredibly stressful job and are perhaps the best multi-taskers on earth!

I've also joined a local book group with 5 other ladies. I love to read and was really excited when a co-worker introduced me to his friend that lead the group. I think the best part about the group is that no one from my work or DH's work is part of it so I'm actually opening up new doors!

This week is the annual Bowl for Kids' Sake to support our local Big Brothers Big Sisters organization. I'm one of the team captains and we've done some really successful fundraising which I'm pretty excited about. And next week I'm volunteering at the local Jazz Festival.

Since getting involved I've felt a lot happier and believe it or not have more energy when I come home (even when it's past my bedtime). I'm doing a better job of eating well and keeping the house clean. I'm starting to feel like the old me again and I like it!

I'm an abstaining, half habiter

My biggest goal for 2009 is to establish better habits and to be more disciplined. My plan is to tackle 5 daily expectancies a month, repeating them as necessary until I feel like they are a true habit (in other words- an automatic action requiring little physical thought to complete).

Here's some good habit forming motivational reading-
2 Simple Ways to Form New Habits without Really Trying I like the idea of a half habit. I used the wii fit as a half habit to get me back into exercising daily and it worked like a charm.
Your Happiness Project: Do Something EVERY DAY I do find it much easier to do something everyday than 3 times a week and I have the exact same conversations in my head as Gretchen!
Quiz: Are you a Moderator or an Abstainer? I'm definitely an abstainer.

No More "Treats"

We're half way through the first month of 2009 and I'm not sure that I've made as much progress on my mindset as I would have liked. True I'm making the bed in the morning, washing all the dishes at night, working out with the Wii and My Fitness Coach for 30 min every week day, but I still feel like I'm cheating the system.

A while back I admitted that my biggest challenge for 2009 was discipline and avoiding the guilty escapes of treating yourself. I have a confession to make- I'm still indulging in those little treats.

I had big plans to work out in the evening but ended up having to take work home. Instead of making time for both, I "treated" myself with a pass card to the work out so I could do my work and still watch tv. Lame.

The next night I had to make a special trip to the local feed store for my dogs' special food, because it is slightly out of my way I "treated" myself to a frozen pizza that night because I got home from work late and shouldn't have to also then cook. Pathetic.

It seems to be a regular theme for me -if anything out of the ordinary happens, I make it into an excuse to "treat" myself. But it's never really a treat just an excuse to be lazy and undisciplined.

Any suggestions on how to stop this?

Progress Report

As I mentioned in my previous post, I’m working on creating a more disciplined (or structured) schedule as I think it will help get me in the right mind set I need to accomplish my 2009 goals (to be disclosed in a future post). I’m taking baby steps to ease my way in since I’ve been pretty fast and lose with a lot of my household chores and what not. I’ve started off with little things to help me keep a cleaner house which also reminds me to balance out my work life by putting my home life at a higher priority.

Progress Report-

1. Wash dishes every night. This is going quite well and by doing the few dishes we have every night, I never have that daunting pile of dishes that overflows from the sink to the counter. The bigger plus is since the kitchen is always clean, DH has started washing his plates occasionally! Must be the guilt of being the only dirty dish in the sink!
2. I’m making the bed every morning. Granted my dogs mess it up all day long but every time I go into the bedroom I straighten the sheets. Again it only takes a few minutes and it makes me feel better about myself.
3. I’m getting into my morning wii fit routine and I’ve even tossed in two other games to help keep me active in the evening (My Fitness Couch and Ski and Shoot) I’ll be sure to review them in a future post.
4. I’m making walking my dogs a priority. I live in a very small house and 3 hyper dogs is never a good things. We are all a little calmer if we take the dogs for a walk in the morning- I just need to tough out the rain.
5. I still need to work on the cooking 4 times a week I think last week I cooked twice. And by cooking I mean making an actual meal verse throwing veggie burgers in the frying pan and calling it a meal if you catch my drift.
6. And the cleaning calendar still needs to be created so I've got some work to do this weekend!
   

New Year Resolutions

In the spirit of the season I've been spending some time reflecting on my past, present, and future and have realized that while I use to be proud of my accomplishments and life, I'm really not that excited about the person I am right now. I think the biggest thing is that I strive on structure and as I've gotten older I've had less and less structure provided externally and more and more has to be internally motivated. So my New Year's resolution is to lead a more structured life and to stop making excuses for why I should be given "a break" just this once.

I read this article at the Happiness Project and it really hit the nail on the head. When I have a bad day I think that is a good excuse why I shouldn't have to do the dishes that night. But the reality is I will actually feel better if I just buckle down and do the dishes. Cleaning makes me feel better but I come up with excuses while I shouldn't have to do it. I don't know if this makes any sense to you, but it was an epiphany for me.

I've started a list of the following daily expectations and are tracking them in my daily planner:

1. I will cook at least 4 meals a week for DH and I.
2. I will use the Wii fit (or other wii excercise game) at least 15 mins 5 days a week.
3. I will walk my dogs at least 15 mins 5 times a week.
4. I will do the dishes daily.
5. I will start a cleaning calendar for weekly chores.

I 'm sure there are other things that I will add but this is what I'm starting out with and once they start becoming habit I will add some new ones.

Personal Productivity

To continue along the lines of asking how can I improve myself, I’ve dusted off a life coach book I bought several months ago and have committed to reading at least 15 minutes a day. The book is broken down into 101 ways to be more productive and while some of the tips won’t work for my financial situation – like getting a maid to clean the house because my time is more valuable- many of the tips are quite useful and can be applied right away- like different ways to declutter your life. I look forward to sharing my experiences as I test out some the ideas.