Where art though friends?

Every once in a while I miss the ability to walk into any room and bounce ideas off of fellow MBAs. And I suppose it's not just MBAs, but rather a group of people where we've shared the same learning experience. I learned from my colleague at my previous job who received the same 9 months of training that I did. It helps to have that common ground.

I was trying to explain something today and my director looked at me quite strange and just said, that doesn't make sense. I couldn't think of another way to explain why the average of achievements trended higher than if you were to take the sum of the sales and divide by the sum of the quota. And all I have is a worksheet that shows exactly that and not enough time to dig into the details before month-end close meetings.

Perhaps it's simply because my brain is fried. I spend so much time digging into commission variances that I can't seem to articulate them anymore. And frankly, I'm not sure sure what more the leaders want. I'll keep trying, but for now, after 12 hours in the office. It's time to home and have a beer!

Spam

Next Sunday will be the first game of my new soccer season! To say the least, it's been a while. I sprained my ankle the week of my brother's wedding. I vowed not to be on crutches for my own wedding. Consequently, I haven't hit the pitch since. In addition, I started a new job and I'm still balancing that moment when you simply decide, today is done! I often find myself reaching for that last item to be absolutely complete before signing off. I try to remind myself, tomorrow is another day.

To be frank, I've been swamped. My manager has tried to help me manage my things to do list, but it's been difficult, which is either due to me never saying no or frankly it making more sense for me to complete something than for someone else to do it. The result, I'm deathly out of shape, but feeling extremely good with my Excel skills. I finally told her on Wednesday that I don’t think I can take on any additional projects at this time.
I'm not sure what is going to happen on Sunday. I remind myself to ease into the game again, though that's always easier said than done. I play because I love it. I love the adrenaline. I love that natural high you feel. And with all that, reason vanishes. No more injuries. I theoretically know my boundaries, but I don't always listen to them. I never want to let someone down and so, I've ended up with a few injuries that force me to stop. I'm working on getting better.

Next week's goal: 3 gym days including a couple runs. Got to start somewhere.

Let's go SPAM!

Pause

It's slightly after 2p and I've finally found enough time to heat up my soup. Every once in a while, I bring food that requires a microwave before eating. More often than not, I munch on a sandwich or something out of my lunchbox. I've found that on busy days, the latter is more friendly to my work schedule. However, it also means that I rarely take the minute for me. It'd be one thing if the shortened lunch led to either me leaving earlier or frequenting the gym more often. Sadly, neither is the case. In today's 24/7 world, we all forget to pause.

Rumor has it that it's good to leave your desk for small periods of time. It increases the blood flow, gives your hands a break from typing and lets your mind relax. Unfortunately, I know neither myself nor my colleagues practice this.

My responsibilities are very cyclical. Every 4 or 5 weeks is close and I end up swampped for a week. Things subside, only long enough to catch up on all the miscellaneous requests sitting in my inbox. Yesterday, I made a big decision. I shut down my computer and went to the gym around 5p. It felt good! It's something I want to do more often. Work is important, but so is health and well being. I miss earning points through Humana Vitality for my physical activity. It was the little extra boost of motivation to do something.

Outside of work, my husband and I have been spending part of our weekends searching for houses. The market in the Bay Area is not friendly and half the stuff on the market is overpriced crap. I cringe when I walk into some of these places and know that the sellers will get close to their asking price because someone else is desperate. It's a vicious circle that doesn't help buyers when there's extremely low inventory. At this point, I don't like or dislike the house search. The reflection just reminds me of the other commitments I once had instead.

I haven't played soccer since before my brother's wedding. Spraining my ankle made me realize that the last thing I wanted for my wedding, was to go down the aisle on crutches. Needless to say, I miss the game. I miss the excitement. I missed having a weekly activitiy that while it is working out, never quite felt that way. Every time I think about rejoining a team, I wonder if I'm in shape enough. I always decide no and say when I get back in shape, I'll join a team. After a while, I guess this is the cart before the horse dilemma. As of right now, I'm clearly not focused enough. However, if I was playing weekly, I would be forced to either get in shape or deal with the consequences.

I think it's really time to pause and focus on myself...as long as life doesn't get in the way.