Saturday, May 12, 2012

My Life Revolution!

Back in the days in which I did more client facing work for my employer, we used to have a saying that many of our clients “were drinking from the fire hose” due to the amount of change that their organizations were going through.  I feel like I am doing the same in my life and it is finally bringing about My Life Revolution.

The first major thing that is changing is obviously the physical aspect of our world.  Some days it seems like chaos shall reign supreme in my life as I wake up, walk into the main floor of the house and see all the craziness that is a foot.  Each day my general contractor brings another group of workers in to tackle this aspect of the work or that aspect.  It is easy to get frustrated with the physical change as it so utterly upended our day-to-day lives.  (Dinners are eaten using my desk in my office as our kitchen/dinner room table.  We have to go outside most of the time to access our laundry room because the kitchen is impassable. Etc, etc, etc.)  Despite that feeling of potential frustration, we always keep it together and make the best of the situation.

Today we put some of those principles of change into action.  We literally sent the entire day out at various showrooms picking new things out for the kitchen.  I narrowed my selections of granite down to about 4 or 5.  I am considering using two different kinds of granite in the kitchen.  The first will be a mid-cost granite that will be used for all the cabinets on the outside perimeter of the kitchen.  The second type of granite will be the high-cost, absolutely beautiful and unique granite that will be used for the center island and eating area.  The combination should make for an outstanding interaction of color and underlying styles.   Selecting appliances seems to be a much easier job, but I still have some issues in that area that I need to work out.  What rocked my world was the price of the refrigerator I want to purchase.  Really - does a refrigerator have to cost the same price as a small car??

My work is also continuing to change on a day-to-day basis.  The manager for whom I work is one of our “industry vertical line of business” general managers.  Working for my manager is like trying to make sense of a scene that is continually shifting and changing.  That isn’t meant as a criticism, it is instead that fact that the business environment in which we work is shifting so radically.  My manager runs my employer’s Healthcare Services Industry group and healthcare in the United States and around the work is changing so rapidly.  As a result, it feels like at times I am the Dutch boy running from the leak in the dyke to leak in the dyke.  But then again, there are other times when I feel unutilized.  There are so many new projects coming down the line to ensure all of our service delivery centers meet regulatory requirements in how we manage and treat personal data, medical history and payment information.  This Friday I received my 3rd position change/ promotion/whatever you want to call it in the last severn months.  Yes – it is crazy but it is what we have to do for now just to keep our heads above water.  To be honest the position change I took yesterday was the best one so far.  It’s gonna be kind of cool!

On top of all that change, it is like every aspect of my thinking and life is also changing.  What I do on a day-to-day basis is different.  Zack is now really reaching an age that I don’t need to be with him 100% of the time when he isn't in school. Last weekend he had a sleep over with his cousin in which I wasn’t around.  It was last Saturday evening and I was going out in downtown for Cinco de Mayo – and I didn’t even worry about getting home to put him to bed.  I figured he and Cole could figure it out themselves and they did.  When I came home at 12:30AM, they were fast asleep.  Of course they did pretty well trash the entire basement…  but they made up for the next morning when I made them clean it all up.

Life can be truly revolutionary if you let it.  If you are willing to dig yourself out of your old ways and open your mind to new things it bring real change into your life.  That change for us is on it’s way in so many different ways – good and bad I suppose but we are going to ride the bucking bronco of change and see where and if it throws us off!

One last great example of change…  I am embracing the whole idea of travel as a major pursuit in my life.  Last night I decided it had been 6 years since we had been to San Francisco – so are going to San Francisco over Memorial Day Weekend.  Yep – kind of spur of the moment decision, but why the hell not?  I had a couple hundred dollar credit on Southwest Airlines that made the airfare palatable – so why not?  It’s going to be a great time seeing all the sights again that inspired me when I worked there for so many years.  Still debating the car rental and whether we are going to head to Point Reyes or not, but I am thinking that is a must do.  Last time I was at Point Reyes, I vowed that every time I was in San Francisco I was going to go there.  I guess I need to make good on that promise!

(The beauty of Point Reyes National Seashore.)

(I absolutely love this view of the Golden Gate Bridge from the north!)

Any way – hope everyone is having a great weekend.  It is time to be off for a Saturday evening.  I am going out to watch the Nuggets game at Champs.  Of course the one stinking year I have season tickets and I don’t buy playoff tickets…  The Nuggets are going to end up going to the Western Conference Championship.  Does anyone want to bet me on that?  You pretty much can predict Nuggets success based upon if I buy playoff tickets or not.  If I buy them…  they are out in the first round.  If I don’t buy them…  they make it to the Western Conference Championship.  It’s like flibbing clockwork!!

Thanks and peace to all! ~J.

2 comments:

Johanna said...

I am from California, a few hours from San Francisco. When I was younger, my friends and I would go down there all the time on the spur of the moment. Now I love Fort Bragg/Mendocino.

Anonymous said...

Love, Love San Francisco. Have visited there two times. Going to Memphis for my Memorial weekend.
Enjoy!