Ave Naute

Hello Sailor! (ah way naw tay)

It’s an old college joke, sorry.  Ok, so it’s been a while, but I can’t sleep tonight, and I’ve been thinking about updating, so I guess now is a better time than never.  I haven’t posted…because I have been busy!  But when I mean busy, I mean busy – like moving to a new house (our FIRST HOME PURCHASE!), renovating it, changing jobs…that’s right, I don’t work at Home Depot anymore, AND I’ve built my spa team up to about 125 men and women, and they are ROCKING and ROLLING!  That means team calls, team trainings, I’m planning a trip to Pennsylvania for training, I just found out I have new team member in ALASKA, and oh, just generally running around with my head cut off.

That being said, my goal/resolution for the year was to find balance.  I guess sometimes you must travel in the wrong direction before you find the right one.   I was stressed beyond belief and worn out…I did do two of the top three most stressful life events all at one time (moved and changed jobs, and am AMAZED that that didn’t lead to the third most stressful thing – Divorce).  Don’t worry, we were nowhere near divorcing, but Michael was close to murder, and it really was all my fault.  I was in tears, or screaming, or venting in some way, shape or form all the time.  It was not pretty, and I felt like tearing my hair out…and like many pets that resemble their owners, my cat is skittish and tends to be a little high strung, and he literally DID start tearing his hair out.  Which made me realize that I needed to fix things…which nicely coincided with the house falling together nicely and getting used to my new job.  And finding out that he wasn’t emanating his and my stress, but rather, has diabetes.  All which is made funnier by the fact that now I’m not sure that the fact that I am handling it all any better is due to growth and increased self control, or just that the skies are clearer…we might never know.

Yet, one must plug on, and I AM on the quest to have more control, to stop allowing stress or annoyance to control me.  There’s a recurring theme of QUIET that I keep running into – from notes in my daily zen calendar, to messages in church about not being so busy being busy that we can’t hear the voice of God, much less our own voices, to learning that some of the best “management/development” of people can be made through asking them questions and NOT speaking or partaking in a verbal tennis match…I asked a mentor – what’s the best thing you’ve heard to teach you how to ask questions and be a better listener…the response: listen for the gap between people’s words and it will force you to listen closer.

Wow.

I’m on a path for improvement, and I’m finding that leadership of this team is requiring me to do it faster, but as always, I usually do my best under pressure.  I have NEEDED to learn these lessons for so long, but am now being forced to.  But you can’t really force the willing.  So I’m asking for it.

Another odd coincidence is that in my new “day job” at the bank – I only really talk to three people a day, and they are very busy.  And I can’t speak loudly because what I am saying is either confidential, and I also don’t want to bother those around me.  So I spend my days being silent and NOT talking much (well, not much for me), then I come home and it’s all ABOUT talking and connecting and teaching and communicating.  In an odd way, my new job is like a sanctuary where I get to rest my brain and thoughts for a bit…a total reversal of what the J.O.B. used to be.

When I started my business, I knew why I wanted to do it…I wanted to get out of Home Depot.  They say your WHY is the most important thing to know…I have been fearful that I don’t have a why anymore, and during those stressful times, I almost let myself think I wanted to quit.  Then it occurred to me that I do have a WHY.  Because this is making ME a better ME, as long as I am mindful of what I am doing, and what my job is now, is to improve the others around me and help THEM to fulfill their needs and their WHYs.  It’s a strangely liberating responsibility…

And, to end – a quote I’m going to plaster on my wall:

Good things come

to those who wait…

to those who work their asses off

And Never GIVE UP!