This week was extremely challenging, both personally and professionally. A few personal family matters exploded. My son was sick all week with a weird, low grade, no-fever stomach ache (that our pediatrician attributes to touching a turtle last month), which manifested itself mainly around 2:00 in the morning. The widgets and plugins on my blog stopped playing well together.
My daughter got impossibly tiny splinters in her feet. School ended, which means graduations, cakes, parties, prizes and multiple frenzied happy dances. I haven't published a blog post since June 8. I only got in one run all week. As I was preparing for bed last night, I realized how defeated and tired I felt. That's no way to end a week, so I began to ponder what I could do to finish out on a more positive note. Here's what I did next.
-
Think. I turned off everything. The laptop, the iPhone, even myself. I sat down in the middle of the floor, folded my legs, took some deep breaths and asked myself why I felt the way I did. I reviewed the week's stressful encounters. Once this brief pity party ended, I listed the things I could do to change any of it. That was a list containing exactly zero items.
Then, I began to think of things I could accomplish quickly to change how I perceived of my week (and myself). Then, I peeled myself off the floor, and took action.
- Act. First, I called an IBN member and had a productive discussion about pending and existing FDA laws affect small businesses. Second, I made considerable progress in 15 minutes on a project I've been avoiding for weeks. Third, I performed some important but tedious updates to IBN's member directory.
-
Celebrate Victory! I went to bed exhausted, content and grateful that well-deserved sleep came quickly. I smiled as I drifted off to celebratory dreams. Had I not stopped to think and take action, I would have gone to bed defeated. Of course this means I would have started today the same way. Instead, by thinking and acting, I found victory!
I woke up rested and empowered — ready to put this week's stress behind me and look forward to a great weekend.
Question: How was your week? How do you find victory?
