Have you ever taken a moment and wondered why you chosen this lifetime? Are you just going from day to day doing the same things everyday? I know that sometimes I am guilty of doing just that. Getting up, going to work, coming home, going to bed, and repeat. I have put a high priority on work and my world has revolved around work. It was so bad at one time that I was lost on the weekend, because I have no work to do.

Thankfully, I am getting better. Yes, work is a high priority for me, but I am finding time for me and those things that really matter for me. How am I doing it? I am starting to slow down and listen. I am listening to the inner voice coming from inside me. I am asking questions of myself and others and I am trying not to take on the energy of those around me. For you that do not understand energy, one example is that I am not taking on their urgency in a situation. Sometimes, people make things more urgent than it needs to be. I am working on coming up with my own urgency and asking questions helps me do that.

At work, this can be challenging, and I like to make decisions, but I want to make the right decision and not the one that seems right because somebody is yelling at me. For example, I have a sales person at our organization who wants to close a deal and deliver it by the end of the year and we are almost in December and if that was not enough, he wanted certain resources to work on the project. Normally, I would fold under the pressure to want to please him (Yes, recovering people pleaser here), and because I would have felt that I would get in yelled by his boss, or his boss.

Well, first for me was to adopt an “I do not care” attitude and I say this because if I cared about making this person happy, I would have done some things that are not right for our engineers and our other customers. I then sat down with my managers and some engineers and understood the effort required and who could do the work and guess what, I was able to find a “temporary” solution. I say “temporary” solution because the sales person still needs to close the order and if another order comes in, the sales person will not get the time available.

I am also opening up to other areas of my life. My coaching has taken a hit because of the focus that I have put on work and I am going to find some more time for me to coach. I enjoy working with people and helping them progress and a few opportunities are starting to show up for me. So, I am going to be open to the possibility that I can work and I can coach at the same time.

Personally this year, I have taken three trips with my family and none of them were work related! I have also connected with friends when I have travelled for business and even renewed some old connections along the way. Yes, I still have work to do, but I am seeing shifts and appreciating the progress. Just taking this moment to appreciate what I has happened and what I have accomplished this year makes me feel better and when I feel better, I know that I can shift more things in my life.

Finally, before I close. Do not compare yourself to me, or others. Compare yourself to yourself. Are you better, even in some small area? Notice, I am not comparing what I have accomplished against anybody else except for me and what I used to do. If I were to sit here and compare my results to somebody else, it would depend upon who I compared it to as to whether I would feel better or not. So, just compare you to how you used to be. Look at the changes that you have made, and appreciate them! Let me know how you have done below.