This past week has been a crazy mess. I had to leave week early twice and work from home once because little HEB couldn’t keep his lunch down and has a double ear infection. Also, teething. Oh, and there was an eclipse. I didn’t really get to watch it because again, teething and ear infection, but I have glasses that prove it happened.
I’m between books right now so I’ve been spending a little more time surfing the web (for like 15 minutes before I fall asleep at 9). I don’t normally post what I’ve been reading but sometimes things come into your life at the right time.
How to Stop New Parent Attrition: I subscribe to a lot of HR sites but rarely read the articles. It’s hard to stop in the middle of the day and read about why everyone hates HR or OFCCP audit assistance. (You’re jealous of my job now, right?) To be honest, I skipped the part of this that offers helpful tips for your business. The author’s description of returning to work just hit me hard. So many working moms describe how difficult it is to go back to work but no one really talks about the insecurities they feel around their performance. Sometimes the internet makes me want to unplug my life and move to the woods, but this gave me just what I needed.
My friend Chrissy recently wrote a blog post about Learning to Live with Intention recently which has been on my mind quite a bit. Specifically, it was her focus on schedules and how structure gives us freedom. I’ve struggled with how pregnancy and parenthood has drastically changed my schedule, but now that our nights are mostly uninterrupted I’m starting to see the beginnings of scheduling time for myself regularly. I don’t want to get my hopes up but the fog seems to be clearing.
One of the key ways I want to free up my schedule is stop wasting so much time on my phone. It’s gotten better little by little but I still find myself on autopilot checking my Instagram or Twitter. I don’t need the news as it comes out. I listen to NPR on my commute and inevitably someone will tell me all the terrible things going on regardless. I don’t need to see it in real time. In this age of anger, it feels as though people are staying on their phones just to keep that level of fury going. Maybe that empowers some, but it disengages me. Just a bunch of things I’ve been doing to be more creative/focused/productive (and to spend less time screaming into the abyss) pretty much summed it up for me.
I spent years discovering the simple tactics gurus like Oprah, Einstein, and Buffett used to become successful—here they are: This is a stupid name for an article. You can feel how quickly it might insult your intelligence if bother to read it. And yet I did. My boss shared it with me knowing me both needed a bit of a pick me up. These tactics are really reminders that the way to success, in whatever way you define it, is about thinking, reading and communicating. It’s not about busting your hump in a dead-end job or even a good job. It’s about the things you care about. I come from the kind of family where you are encouraged to go to college to learn to think, not facilitate a career. This article was a reminder to get back to that attitude. Life is about learning to think, learning to communicate and sharing with those nearest or dearest. How easy it is for us to forget.
Seeking Misadventure 