…because for me…

…they all not only happened, but happened one right after the other, but they didn’t wait for one to stop then the next one started, they just piled up on each other,

For those of you who know me personally you know that when I say, “I have no IDEA how I broke my knee once, much less in SIX places”, you will be able to believe it. Even MY Doctor was rather incredulous over that one. See I can tell you what I did the week FOLLOWING the initial injury, but I haven’t a clue as to what initially happened. See apparently I missed a step, while carrying 40lbs of candy and fell down some stairs, but that was a week AFTER the pain started.

Then comes the call that mom’s in ICU and can I come help take care of her. They don’t know what the issue is although for 6 weeks they pump her full of drugs, and she loses weight, fluid and attitude. So my sister and I spend all the month of December swapping out who will be baby sitting mom. Not that I mind, Lord knows she has done her share of baby sitting me in my adult years, its the scheduling that’s hard, because just about then:

I get an email from my boss saying there will be major restructuring of the department starting in Sr. Management and working its way down, how far down no one knew, but some people would be re applying for their jobs. OH Yeah, and the move that was supposed to be next month is now next week. Wait, that’s 2 weeks, Umm from 3 Thursdays, and were not going where we thought and so we have to be out of here Monday (next) so we move to an area we left and stay for a short while only to move when the other build…”Can I work from home?” So THAT was actually a blessing, until…

The memo comes out that we are so far behind the budget that everything BUT current salaries have been taken away, and we have to budget with LAST YEARS budget, and anyone who quits will NOT be replaced for a year and….then there are the holidays.

Which is normally a GREAT thing, except that this year we not only have the NORMAL employees relatives who are ALWAYS dying during the holidays, but now mine are sick too. Then there’s one who has age seniority gunning for my job because of course….

My wife’s car dies. Now we didn’t know how badly until we were already several hundred dollars into a repair, only to find that something happened to disable the vehicle even MORE, and now we were looking at a repair of 5 times the initial estimate. Time to buy a new car. I HATE buying clothes and cars. You always seem to get your shorts all tangled up either way! This one however wasn’t that bad. Gotta love Car-max.

SO, as I asked last time, which one or combination of these is a valid excuse? Bet YOU thought it was just one of those silly on lone polls again huh? Nope just a day in the life of…but the question still stands, where would YOU draw the line?

I was in business once that depended very heavily on assistance from a partner, when the partner started doing FAR LESS than what I felt was needed, I went to my mentor and said, “How can I motivate this person?” His answer was as true today as it was then: “Would you do this if that person were not a part of it?” The answer of course was, “Well YES.” His reply was simple “Well then GO DO IT!”

Billy Graham is 93 years old this year, an amazing story about an AMAZING man with an AMAZING life. He JUST wrote a book, to join the library of over 30 previously published. In this book, titled ”Nearing Home” he makes an amazing statement which is “Pain should be a TOOL not an EXCUSE”

So while most men his age are struggling to sit up in bed in the morning, he is racing to meet a publishing deadline and encouraging men HALF his age (that’s me) to look forward to do the same. So while many of MY partners and team mates, friends and family, have taken the opportunity to use whatever it is that THEY are dealing with as a “REASON” for not doing this or not going there, none of which I begrudge them, I have kept on moving, albeit somewhat more slowly than is normal for me, but moving AHEAD none the less. And YOU SHOULD TO!

During lunch I spoke with a young lady who is very frustrated with her job, now she is very good at what she does, she was caught in the verbal crossfire of her co workers. My advice, get OUT of that situation. Please don’t misunderstand I’m not advising her to quit or anything else rash like that. Instead when ‘people’ around you stop acting civil, remove yourself, as best you can, from THAT situation. Even if its just taking 15 minute stress walk. But do NOT let people around you get you into a bad situation. Certainly they have ZERO right to drag you or anyone else for that matter, in to the middle of THEIR private little war. You on the pother hand have EVERY right to a peaceful workplace and if you can’t find it there you need to find out where that is, or they need to move themselves elsewhere,

Put headphones on, read a good book, meditate, pray, call someone you care about. Just do SOMETHING, at least ONE thing that will allow you to do what will put your mind back on track and move you one step closer to where you need to be! Uh oh, maybe I’ve said too much, maybe NOW you can figure out the core of this site……

Until next time, remember…42!