Positivity Quickie

Here’s a quick post of positivity to keep my commitment to myself on more frequent posting. 

Since my last update, reporting a little progress after a bad beat on the job, I and my team have been drinking from the firehose. Not only as a little bit of of overcompensating for the perception of failure (even though my team had zero to do with the decision that left us all so stunned), but it’s once again quarter-end and the workload is super high. That’s left me with little time or energy to post or do much of anything. 

But there are some good things to focus on:

1. It’s summer time and that means a little more sunshine and breezes. It’s been unusually mild the last week or so and I’m enjoying not melting in the blazing heat when walking to and from my car and the rare lunch break on the patio. 
2. The hard work I and my team are putting in is being recognized. It’s not much, but it’s nice when the execs and sales leaders take a second to say “Thanks for all the help, you guys rock!” Just today, I got a bit of an ego boost when my boss spontaneously came into my office while I was finishing a call with our President of Global Sales. He was just  in time to hear her thank me and compliment my team’s great work and my “wise counsel”. 
3. There is a 4-day weekend at the end of this very busy, very frustrating, too-long week. I’m really looking forward to it. 

I hope you’re able to see and celebrate the little positives in your life today. 😎🙏☀️

Better

It has been gloomy, hot and humid ever since Friday’s Dark Day. Hot, yucky weekend followed by humid overcast early week. In fact, it stormed all night and well into this morning. Buckets of rain and growling thunder made for a tense night of restless sleep. 

Yet, it’s getting better. The storm clouds have passed and the sun is shining. A robin has been visiting the ledge outside my office window, serenading me for the last hour or so. There’s a light breeze waving the bright green trees adorning the lawns surrounding my office building and fluttering the flag at the entrance to the campus. 

Seems like the physical changes might be reflecting, or even driving, the mood shift around here. What seemed so dire and intense on Friday has largely eased into a determination to overcome. A few words from the C-Suite, a pep-talk of sorts, has set a better tone and a challenge to win despite taking an unfair licking. That’s a welcome change and a goal I can get behind. 

I hope your week is looking positive and you find something good to appreciate even when there’s gloom. 

Dark Day

I can’t and won’t get into the details of what makes this sunny, warm, beautiful, Summer Friday a grim, dark day. Suffice to say my company hit a wall in dealing with an important legal matter today, and the mood among the executives is bleak. I’m fairly confident that my job won’t be impacted and that the company will definitely recover. But it’s a high stress day on top of a high stress week that followed a high stress month. This is the Monday-iest Friday I’ve had in a very long time. Hence my need to get it out of my brain and off my chest. 

The interesting thing (I can’t yet say “good thing” about any part of today) is the spectrum of reactions to the news among the leaders who know. It doesn’t seem to have had the same effect on everyone, and I m not entirely clear why that is. Some seem to have immediately soaked it in and shrugged it off. Others aren’t certain what the appropriate response is. Still others have had a fairly predictable response. 

Whatever the reaction has been from person to person, the prevailing theme is disbelief or, maybe more precisely dismay, rather than anger. I’m thankful for that. While there palpably is anger, people are still simply trying to make some sense of it before letting anger drive action. That seems a healthier pattern than I expected, I guess. 

Maybe that just shows I’ve misjudged some people. But I won’t lie: I went to my boss’ office this morning after receiving the result with the full expectation of having to ride out a wave of blinding rage. Not directed at me. I know I’m blameless in this and he is fully aware of that. But I am often his sounding board and confidante. He vents to me when he can’t say what he needs to say to others. So, I expected red-faced, fuming, barking anger. Instead, it was sneering contempt and disgust, with a side of simmering anger held in reserve. That’s something, I suppose…personal growth? Or maybe just resigned acceptance. Either way, I’m glad there’s been no shouting. 

Now, all that’s left is to pick up and move on. In the biggest picture, this will be a mere hiccup. In the near-term big picture, it’s a dark mark on a year that was poised to be shining and victorious. I hope we have the leadership and fortitude to refuse to let it be a roadblock for our success. 

In the immediate, small picture that only matters to me, it just totally blows and I can’t wait for this day to end. 

Caffeine

This will be a short post. All I really want to say is: thank heavens for caffeine. 

Whether delivered in a frosty cola, icy blended coffee drink, or iced tea in a pinch, cold caffeination is my preferred means of self-medicating with caffeine. Hot coffee- and tea-based drinks are last resort choices for me.

Whatever the prevailing wisdom of the relative “healthiness” of caffeine as part of daily consumption, I am resigned to the condemnation that comes my way for it. It is a blessing and a curse. But my body has become accustomed to its presence in my bloodstream. It is there and I am not equal to the task of removing it from my life. 

So…thank goodness for caffeine. Some days it’s the only thing that prevents me from strangling every irascible, needy, demanding, unthinking sales guy who crosses my path.