If you’re alive I’m sure you’re like
me in that you find somewhere in each new day a brand new adventure. It seems
that there’s always something. The truck you get behind that makes you late or
the cat puking on the floor just as you’re ready to walk out the door.
Misplacing your car keys or something else that trips you up. Maybe it’s after
you get to work. You have your day planned out, you know what’s on your list
and then … wham! Straight out of left
field comes a curveball and you have to flail at it.
Yesterday’s adventure was receiving
a call at 11:05 am and being ‘asked’ to turn a project on which I have been
working for over a year completely on its head. Just turn it 180° so that
instead of driving toward a finite End Date, we have an open ended project.
Internal thought process: Let's see... eight hundred tasks, one master chart, into which are linked eight subsidiary charts further connected by fifteen child charts...
Oh,
and by the way, can you have it done by nine o’clock tomorrow morning for our
Director’s meeting?
What’s a good answer to that one? ‘I’ll
get started but can’t promise it’ll be complete…’ That’s what I came up with.
And, by focusing on it and coming in a little early it was about 98% done. A
few tweaks, minor changes, nothing catastrophic and I will have finished. Whew! In the meantime, it’s good enough to
trot out and put up on the screen for the directors to see and pick at.
Today’s adventure was having the
chance to sit in a room of execs – directors and above – and explaining ‘my’
gem to the CEO – a very smart, meticulous and inquisitive man. He’s exactly the kind of person I like
working with because you don’t have to explain things more than once – he gets
it first time ‘round. Of course, there are times when he drills deeper than I’m
prepared for, but that’s okay, too. It makes me think, to pay closer attention
for the next time.
In the end, it was a good morning
all around for me. The turning-over task is 98% done. I just have to finish the
minor tweaks, which means I don’t have time or need to fret about what isn’t
done. The meeting went well with some drilling and I think I tipped the ‘Respect-O-Meter’
to the green side. It’s all good.
Of course all of this threw my
timing off for everything else. My posting this, for instance, but in my part
of the world, time is flexible. That’s a valuable lesson I learned early on,
when I worked in the international department of a bank. My schedule was tipped
on its head for two years when I worked nights – one o’clock in the morning
until nine-thirty. That taught me that being caught by morning, noon, evening
and night isn’t necessary. I have the power, to an extent, to bend time to my
needs – like this morning.
Over the years I’ve also learned not
to sweat the small stuff. I don’t always recognize the small stuff the first
time it sniffs around, but I usually manage to figure it out. Sometimes before
I sweat, sometimes after, but I do usually figure it out. Big stuff, though,
yeah, that I can sweat. I can definitely sweat the big stuff right along with
the best of ‘em. It takes practice but no one lives a life without practice in
that, so I’m there, ready to sweat if and when needed.
One thing that I have trouble with
though is learning not to challenge others. If someone tosses something in
front of me with which I disagree, I have a heck of a time turning my back on
it and just walking away. I don’t know if it’s a character flaw or not, but it
does sometimes create unnecessary friction and trouble. It’s just a life lesson
still to be learned and I am working on it. The one thing I do know is that we
all have things to learn and improve on – it’s part of being alive, so I’ll
keep working on it, hoping to achieve perfection (or as close to it as I can
come) before my number is called.
So, I’m going to get started on the
little tweaks to my project, then start in on the character flaw (there’s an
open-ended discussion that’s becoming a circular argument on another website).
Have a lovely day!
Best~
Philippa
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