EEKS! It’s been almost a year since I last wrote. Problem is, I got really STUCK on my “Focus #4”…my career. I was miserable at work, and wasn’t sure how to write about it.
There were so many subjects like:
How to know when to change jobs (being abused and having to watch all of your co-workers being abused by a company is a start!)
How to find a dream job (or at least something that you are happy doing!)
Tips for interviewing (that I learned, not necessarily applied, lol)
Getting out of the comfort zone (I was so good at this in everything EXCEPT work- had been with the same product for 17 years)
Now I wish I would’ve written so much more about the journey, but at the time that ordeal kept me pretty busy!!!
In a nutshell, I decided to get out of the “comfort zone” in one area of my life that I hadn’t done in 17 years. I thought about my career and the times that I was the absolute happiest at work. I found a position doing exactly that, AND was lucky enough to know a couple of wonderful people in the company who more than helped me find the position in a much, MUCH better company, doing a lot more of what I love to do (within this field, anyways 😉 ).
Anyways…time to get back to writing again.
I’ve decided to do a “50 before 50” *thing*. Figured I’d pick something I absolutely love; trying new things!
So, I vow, that before I’m 50 (that’s in 69.97 months, or 304.55 weeks from now) I will try 50 new things. That’s approximately 1 *cool and interesting* new thing every 1.4 months!
No, trying a new brand of toothpaste does NOT count!!!! These are INTERESTING new things. For example some things I did in the past couple of years that would’ve counted (had I started this tally earlier!) are: Learning how to kite surf, jumping my bike into a foam pit, taking aerial silks classes, going to St. Lucia (yes-travel to cool new places counts!), taking a mud bath in volcanic mud in St. Lucia counts too! Here are some pix of the things I’m talking about–NEW (to me) and interesting or fun or whatever…
So that’s my latest plan. Not sure if I’ll keep writing about my Focus areas, which I’ve revised a little, or 50 before 50, or both! We’ll see! I DO want to write a little about Focus #1- Mental and Spiritual Health, in that I just wanted to mention the importance of self-talk and curbing unjustified fear and worry.
I’m a HUGE Game of Thrones fan. More so the books than the show (I don’t necessarily like the glorified gory (should I say glorified?) aspect of the show), but of course the two go together.
One of the things that I noticed in the books was the self-talk of two of the female characters. Daenerys Targaryen’s self talk “I am the Dragon” kept her mentally tough and helped her do AMAZING things. Arya Stark also had self-talk that was taught to her by her dancing instructor, which helped to keep her calm during serious situations:
I really didn’t understand the whole “fear cuts deeper than swords” that she would tell herself over and over again, but when I re-read the line “The man who fears’ losing has already lost”, not only did I totally get it, but could see the usefulness of it in so many situations…..it goes along with the whole positive-thinking, and self-fulfilling prophecy mindset.
Put in a different context besides sword fighting (as I hope to not be in a swordfight anytime soon!) it could be applied towards relationships, for example. Say you are in a relationship but spend your time fearing loss of that person. That fear will determine how you act, and eventually those actions will probably cause you to lose that person! So even in the relationship sense, “the man (or woman) who fears losing has already lost”.
Of course, it’s important to not be totally naïve and to be cognizant of signs and red flags, etc. but generally speaking, if I let “fear of loss” control my actions, I may be pushing people away that weren’t originally going anywhere. Food for thought!