Category Archives: Balance

The Power of Reflection

Setting aside time to reflect gives you the opportunity to see how things fit together and identify gaps.  This nothing new, right?  You know this, have experienced it, whether it was in your personal life or work life or both.  So if we know it, have felt the benefit of it, why is it so hard to do?  Why do we feel compelled to fill up every precious waking minute with a task?  How many of you feel the impulse in an idle moment to pick up your Blackberry or iPhone (or similar item)?  Do you ask yourself why?  I do.

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Love, loss & memories

Tomorrow is the first anniversary of my mom’s death.  After everything we had been through together, good and bad, this month has been hard emotionally for me.  Because she was ill for so very long, we were fortunate she held on (despite tremendous pain and suffering) to give us so much more time together than we thought we were going to get when she was diagnosed with cancer.  She was able to see and share in moments she never thought she could – the birth of her granddaughter and the chance to see her first few years.  Now my daughter has memories of her Nana, which I am thankful for. 

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Final surgery update!

Hello all – as promised, this is my final report out on my surgery results from Feb.  I would say I have reached full recovery now.  Still some minor pain on big sneezes and occasional twinges but good for my purposes.  Now for the good news – did it deliver on all the anticipated benefits?  I give it a resounding YES!

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The tooth fairy story

My daughter is six years old and very imaginative.  Her creativity fascinates me.  This week, she lost her second tooth – let me tell that it has seemed both a dramatic and funny saga that I simply had to share.  Maybe it will make you laugh too (-:

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Small, angry voices…

I admit to fear and to worry and to doubt.  I am fortunate in these times of fear and uncertainty, where many are suffering the most dramatic and awful change of their lives.  I am thankful, every day, for what I have:  my good health (and health insurance), my loved ones (and their good health), my great job (that I am lucky to love) and the basics we all need (food, shelter, etc…).  My heart goes out to those who are suffering because I remember earlier days where a roof over my head was uncertain, not much food (so thankful for free school lunch programs) and no health insurance (or money for much needed medicines, like my asthma inhaler).  I remember and my heart cries out for them.

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My surgery – the gory details

My view of my septoplasty and the snoring surgery.  For those of you who don’t know me, I was born with a severely deviated septum, with only a tiny opening in the right side of my nose.  For me, this is normal.  Little did I know that it is part of why I have low energy levels and don’t seem to get enough rest, even after a good nights sleep.  The nose actually needs both sides to work right and properly oxygenate you.  After years of dreading the surgery pain, I finally decided that my gift of better living to myself this year would be breathing better.  I do one of these every year – for example, one year I gave up soda, another fast food, another caffeine.  Each a step towards changing my lifestyle to a healthier one.

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Time for planning

The business planning cycle I have gotten used to seems to be one of good intentions but just slightly off.  I have had the good fortune to see this planning cycle work the same at more than one company.  I ask myself this (and you, of course) – is this cycle a necessity or can it be successfully improved upon?  Here’s the one I mean – it starts with budget time (where you hope you have a solid long range strategy to lean on).  It’s approximately mid-summer.  Now, for some it actually starts a bit sooner or a bit later but I picked a mean.  You haven’t solidified your plan for the next year yet but you have the framework, so you can put together the money.  Then year end hits (for those of you on the calendar fiscal year, which is quite a lot of you) and everyone is focused on that.  Come January, you hope to have a finalized budget and plan for the year.  That is always the goal.  It’s part of why you start the budget cycle early, right?  But how many of you make it to the goal line of early January?  Part of that is because you need to see how year end close went but there are often other factors that get in the way.  So you may not have a final plan and budget until February or even March.  It’s a crazy cycle – shampoo, rinse, repeat!  Every year this happens, everywhere I work or where my friends and colleagues work, it tends to happen.  Does it work better where you are?

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2009 – Kicking off the new year

The holidays are over and I am back to work after my longest vacation off in my working history.  It was lovely but it will come as no surprise to those close to me when I mention that I managed to snag an awful virus and was sick for the whole two weeks.  I am still dragging through the dregs of it…  All of that aside, it was a lovely and quiet holiday, filled with family time and I treasure the opportunity I had.

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One more day…

I have a lovely, long holiday planned with my husband and daughter.  Sixteen days off.  A rare thing in my life.  Normally, I only have a week off at a time (total of nine days), so this rarity will be something to treasure.  I’ve spent a fair amount of time the past few weeks encouraging my team to do the same.  For a Customer Insights organization, the end of the year is not a crazy one like some parts of the org, more a time to wrap up projects. 

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Flexibility and work

Today, we get a call, bright and early from my daughter’s new pediatrician’s office letting us know there was a cancellation in the schedule tomorrow and could we please move our original appointment for our daughter’s annual well child from January 2009 to tomorrow.  Now, to put this into perspective, we don’t know this doctor yet, that’s part of the plan for this visit.  And now, we have a last minute switch.  Well, I am a fortunate woman because my husband is a fantastic stay at home dad but there’s a line here right?  What things are musts vs. nice to have when it comes to your child’s life?  It’s not a lack of trust in my husband, it’s really about wanting to be present for certain things.  So what do  I do… I frantically go through my afternoon schedule and beg for patience while I reschedule the block of time so I can be there.  Because it’s important to be present as part of the balance, in my view.  Some choices and tradeoffs have to made, I know that but this time, I was lucky, because I could manage the last minute reschedules – next time I might not be so lucky.  But for this week, I made it.

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