A Heck of a Week

I actually did heaps and heaps of work this week and it was WONDERFUL!!! I found myself kapoinging awake at 4am without an alarm clock, ready to go. I didn't get to the gym half the week, but I did get to work at 7am twice and left after 5pm three times. I had intended to take Friday off, but decided that I really needed to be at work instead since we had lots of stuff going on which was somewhat time-sensitive.

The highlight of the week was when I *squeed* during a conference call with our head office. My attitude was about 2500% improved over the previous month. I was bouncy and energetic and largely uncaffeinated. There was laughing and joking and I took a proactive approach to planning the actions in the investigation, which was surprisingly well-received. (I decided that the dearth of definitive leadership needed to be addressed, rather than whined about.) All-in-all, it was a fun time.

Next week we'll wrap up the last bits of work and collect information for reports. I'd like to pop out the first report by the end of the week and have most of the second one written and ready by Friday as well. With any luck I'll actually take Friday off this time.

Stop Whining!
Having started reading "Shut Up, Stop Whining and Get a Life" by Larry Winget, I am increasingly aware of the volume of complaining/whining that goes on in daily life. I've been paying more attention to the conversations around me and attempting to gauge what percentage of them are whining and what percentage are not. So far most of what people talk to each other about is how things aren't going right or someone has done them wrong. I do it too. I do it a whole lot more than I'd like to. The fact of the matter is that it doesn't actually fix whatever is going wrong and it doesn't address the behavior of the person who done you wrong either. It just spews out negativity. Sympathy from others is great, but that seems a lot like rewarding ineffective or bad behavior to me.

The most recent whining behavior I overheard involved people apparently in an online degree program. They read in the program manual that they were expected to take a comprehensive exam partway through the program, but they were not explicitly, verbally told this at any point until about two months ago. To hear this guy go on about it, the entire group of people in the program didn't think they had to take the test since they hadn't been verbally told about it and it was just in the manual. He mentioned that it was in the manual three times, but that it wasn't what they were supposed to do. I'm not sure why he (or they) were surprised to find out the manual actually was correct.

The next complaint was that the manual said they were supposed to have a program advisor assigned when they began, but none had actually been assigned. So now the manual is supposed to be correct and the group is irate that the program has screwed up and not followed the manual. Despite having been in this program for what sounds like a year, nobody in the group thought it might be a good idea to take some responsibility for their educational process and *ask* about the advisor thing. Based on the conversation this guy was having with his cell phone, it's the school/program's fault that they are screwing up his degree and that he's having to do more work than they told him about, even if said work was spelled out in writing in the materials he received about it when he started.

I wonder if the whining and expecting everything to be spoonfed/delivered on a silver platter is a function of helicopter parenting and giving kids everything they might possibly want. The ingrained sense of entitlement has caused people to think that everything will be done for them, brought to them, digested for them and otherwise giftwrapped without any effort on their part. When the world doesn't deliver to that degree, they rant, complain, berate customer service people and otherwise make their disgruntlement known, often in a way that would put a three year old to shame. What ever happened to self-reliance, initiative and taking responsibility for one's life and actions? I know it's easy to whine about how someone else should have done something or let you know there was a project/program/whatever available. I have done that. I've even whined here about it. But to live your entire life that way? I remember having years of whiner periods in my life. Yikes. Talk about not fun and not productive. All I ever did was alienate people and isolate myself. I rarely got anything done, but raise my blood pressure and develop insomnia.

So, I have a new behavior for myself: No whining. If there is a need to whine or complain, look at the situation and figure out what is wrong so that you can come up with a solution to the problem. This will accomplish two things: first, I can actually get a solution to whatever is not going well and second, I get to solve problems, which is one of my favoritest things to do anyway. If nothing else, solving problems is a lot more fun than whining. It is hard to get a sense of accomplishment about whining but easy to get a sense of accomplishment about solving a problem.

Today
Today I am a lady of leisure. I decided that after a week of lots of work at work, I would have a day of doing whatever the heck I felt like doing, instead of trying to get things done from my neverending, albeit productivity enhancing, lists.

The morning started with a bit of productivity and hilarity. I got the knitted treat bags I made for my niece and nephew finished last night. They look just like candy corn and are adorable. I got them wrapped in tissue paper and boxed up this morning along with some almond hot chocolate mix for my sister. When I took the box to the post office, the usual semi-grumpy postal guy was there. He took the box and mumbled something to the effect of "Do you need anything else today?" I replied that I needed to wake up. He said he could smack me if that would help. I told him that I was actually going to get coffee as my next stop but that if it didn't do the trick I might be back. His response? "We close at 11." BWAHAHAHAHAHA! :-)

I picked up a couple of bags of lemons on sale at the veggie store. With some of them, I'll make lemon bars and take them to work next week. At the moment I'm hanging out at the bookstore, having just noshed on a mini lemon bundt cake and a latte. The hyperkinetic girl is not working the coffeeshop today. The guy who is there is not quite as personable, but is still very good. He brought me my latte when he finished making it, rather than telling me to come get it. He also brought my cake to me after noticing I had failed to pick it up myself (oops). OTOH, he did do a nice job of asking me if I wanted a treat out of the bakery case when I ordered my coffee.

The only "work" I need to do today is to mow the lawn (and thoroughly clean the mower and weed whacker) and to purchase some mouse bait and furnace filters. I have one filter left in the closet which is about to get put in the system. I like to have filters on hand since that's the only way I can remember what size to buy. I also need to get up in the attic and check on the mouse issue. I thought I heard a scurrying in the walls a few weeks back. It's cold enough at night now that I wouldn't be surprised if the critters had moved back in. I wish I knew how they were getting up there, so I could block their entry. I think my next "House Project" will be to finish putting extra insulation batts into the attic over my bedroom and computer room, then insulate the attic hatch in the hallway. It doesn't seat itself properly any more since I cracked it (oops) and it's just a piece of thin fiber board anyway. I probably could wash/wax my car too. I can't remember when I waxed it last. Mostly I'm inclined to just gaze out the window and watch people go by.

Comments

Stefaneener said…
You sound great. I need some of that. I'm in a situation that I don't really know how to address. I'm not happy with it but I don't know what I can do about it. Maybe I should read that book. . .

I'm glad to hear about work. It's been making you so crazy.

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