A Time of Reflection

This is going to be a special two section part entry. The first section is going to be focused on how I spent some of my time off the last week. The second section is going to be about why today is important to me.

It’s almost time to go back to work. I’ve been off for most of the last week and a half, and now it’s really hitting me that I have to get back into my work routine. So, if you take some time off and you don’t have plans to go somewhere, what do you do? It’s amazing how many times my plans changed. I had two things I wanted to do, and both were outside events. One was completely cancelled, the other one was moved indoors. The event that was canceled freed up a lot of time. When I was about halfway through my time off, I found myself doing a lot of thinking. The more I thought, the more I found myself going for walks. I’ve walked over five miles in the last four days. I know for some of you that isn’t anything special, but for me, it’s not something I normally do on a daily basis. So, what did I do with all this walking time? To be honest, not a lot. I didn’t find the answer to any of lives greatest questions, I can’t tell you the ins and outs of everything going on with Israel and Palestine. The main thing I can tell you is that I feel like I have a direction for the next few months. I took a few apps off my phone and chose not to respond to a few text messages. I felt like someone handed me a detailed report on where my time was spent and who it was spent with. When I was done looking at the report, I didn’t like some of what I read. So much wasted time. It’s amazing what we do when we have a spare ten minutes here and there. We don’t call a friend or read a good article, we mostly waste our time with social media or a game on our phone. I don’t have a huge issue with either one, I’m just amazed at how quickly that time adds up. I started thinking about all of the times I got to the end of the week, and I didn’t accomplish everything I wanted to. I say to myself that I wish I had a few more hours to get things done. Then I look at my phone at the end of the week and it tells me that I spent five hours playing a game. Even if I only spent half the time on the game, that would have given me two and a half more hours to do something productive. I just want to do a better job of working on what I want or need to work on. So often we spend time doing things for everyone else while our to do list just keeps getting more and more overwhelming. I want to be way more strategically selfish. I want to make sure that I am not wasting all of my energy on someone else’s list or doing things that aren’t improving me. Let me be clear, we need to help each other out. We just have to make sure that we aren’t drowning ourselves helping other people out of the shallow end of the pool.

After typing all of that, I need to mention what today is in case someone doesn’t know. Today is bosses’ day. I woke up this morning to multiple text messages wishing me a good day. I’m grateful for my team and how much they show me they care. So, I want to make sure that I mention what I think makes a good boss. A good boss cares for you, not just the work that you do. He pushes you to be better than you already are. He doesn’t want you complacent because he cares about you improving yourself, for your benefit not his. A good boss lets you show your personality. Way too often we have people trying to either create robots or replicate themselves. They also let you try different ways to see what is most comfortable for you. At my job we famously say that there are two ways to get to the gas station. Everyone says it, very few actually believe it. A good boss knows how and when to criticize you. He knows when you have given it your full effort and when you haven’t. I worry that too many people have had such a bad boss for so long that they have no clue what a good boss is. I also worry that some people have a good boss, but they have no clue what they have because they have never experienced a bad boss. On the one hand, I am happy that you have never had a bad boss. On the other hand, I wish you knew what you had because one day you won’t have it so well and you will miss what you have right now. I say all these things because my boss is very supportive of me. My personality isn’t for everyone, sometimes I’m way too loud and other times I decide that I just don’t want to talk anymore. He encourages me to post things online and to do more things that I want to do in life. He compliments me when I do well and tells me when he thinks I can do better. The crazy part is that I am only one of many people that he has to deal with, and he continues to handle all of the people and personalities flawlessly. So, to him, I say Happy Bosses Day, and Thank you! You are appreciated even way more than you know, and I will never stop bragging about all that you do!!