It can make you crazy sometimes.

Work has a way of making me not do what I love to do.

I've been pretty stressed lately. Holidays, girlfriend moving in, kids, work, home improvements, and school.

Work has probably been the one that has stressed me out the most. I've had 100% turnover here since June. One from downsizing, another left with two weeks of notice and then decided to no show his last day, the last one just decided to not show up and never came back. Pretty rough I must say.

Because of this, I just don't feel like touching a computer when I leave work. I don't look at my laptop, my pc has been powered down for weeks, and that means no guitar has been played either. I always hook in to the computer to play. It's just how I do things.

But, I don't want to look at Facebook, browse any other part of the internet, or even gain knowledge. It's just been a drain.

I even had off for a full week and I don't want to look at a computer.

Work has now infiltrated my love of computers.

Time to fix this.

Reaching critical mass...

It is that point in the semester where everything starts to really weigh you down. I have one class where it is nothing but group work. We have one weekly assignment that is hard to even start until after the Monday class, and it is due in two days. Then there is the term group project which is an ongoing thing, but the next phase is also due THIS WEDNESDAY. On top of that, I have another class where we are at the end and of course... group project. I would have loved to skip tonight, but it is the night we are going to do said project work so I can't. Let's top that off with a helping of two eight hour work days (no lunch thanks to school) and having to play a show tomorrow.

I have no doubts that I will be up until the wee hours of the morning. I will try my best to do it without the help of caffeine. I'm not sure if I will succeed or not, but I will try.

The whole timing will be fun. I made my list, I know what I need to do.

Class, drive home, make a quick dinner, eat while working on term group work, get gear for tomorrow ready, sleep (right!), wake up, shower, load gear, go to work, get work done, do some weekly group work at the office at 5pm, eat dinner, show, load gear, home, more weekly and term group work, sleep...

It never ends, but I'm getting things done.

How to Overcome Burnout When You’re a Superachiever

I ran across this today and felt it was relevant enough to share.

It's all about managing stress with work and how not to get burned out. Keep on putting things like this out there, Lifehacker. It's always a good read for me.

How to Overcome Burnout When You’re a Superachiever

Sometimes you just need to let it all out...

At work today, things got a little bit heated. There are specific things that just have not been happening and I had to make sure it was. Why? It's my job.

This place has been a challenge for me the last few months, and with school as well... crazy.

So, I stood up, called them all in to a conference room and just let it all out.

I have this passion to make sure that the people I am supposed to be helping are happy. This is the same thing I am trying to instill on the people here. Each person should be happy when you walk away. On top of that, it is pretty amazing to hear people say how much it is appreciated when all that is done is a simple phone call.

All they want is for you to call them back. I might not have the answer, but I will find the person who does and I will make sure they call you back and get it fixed to your satisfaction. I've always been about that. Call them, calm them, sympathize, fix, thank. That is how I handle issues at work. I don' toot my own horn going "look what I did." That's not me.

Tonight there I get to play on stage. It's been a couple months, and right about now, I need it.

Repost from today was a better day because....

This is a repost from my other blog Today was better because... I think it is relevant for here as well.



Today was better because... I am the best in the world at what I do.

I can haz halp button?

Ok, maybe not. Hopefully some people get the reference to this post... if not, well... here. Today at work, I realized that I do one thing VERY well. I get things done and I make people happy. I make the problems go away. I make sure that when someone hangs up the phone with me that I have taken care of everything humanly possible, or they know that I am going to track down whatever it is I can for them at that very second.

I have my moments where I slip, sure. But I have this ever growing passion to just help people. I don't care if I get recognized for it, praised in front of a group, I don't even care if I get a thank you. I just want to make sure the problem is solved and the department doesn't look like idiots.

Today we had an issue that came in with only 10 minutes left in the day. From there, an email came to me AFTER 5pm. I could have let it lie, but I made sure it got taken care of. This was a must. Deadline day. No way to really say no and I didn't. I tracked down someone and got it done and made sure that all was good before I went home.

I bust my ass on a daily basis for my job. I have to go in there with the attitude that I am the best in the world at what I do, but also know that I am human... and I make mistakes as well.

Sometimes "good enough" really is good enough.

Lately the student portion of my life has been interfering with my work/boyfriend/father portions of my life. It has been overtaking every aspect of it. I have been unable to concentrate on anything else other than school because that is what is needed from it. The bad part is that the other three here are suffering from it. I can't spend time with the kids, my girlfriend has noticed that I am cranky because of it, and at work I can not stay focused because of the sheer amount of focus the schoolwork is demanding from me. Work has spilled in to my home life, home life gets pushed to the side, and often times feels ignored and doesnt want to tell me they feel ignored.

This semester has been a real bear. It's almost over. In the meantime I'm going to have to figure out where to get sleep because on Friday, the musician also comes in to play.

What I
Ve Lea rend from all of this is to just not stress out as much. That maybe giving 85% really is enough...it's still a passing grade and something to not be sneezed at. I don't like giving less than 100% but for the next 5 weeks, it's going to have to do if I want to get things done.

Start realizing the little things are important.

It's the little things that are important in life. Friends, family, a smile, finishing something that you thought couldn't be done.

I would like to think we all need to look at those and realize it's the collection of all the little things that helps us through the day. It's how I keep moving. I try not to dwell on anything for too long and I move on. It seems to work for me. It's always the big things that make me stress, but once I step back and look at all the little things, I am happier.

...getting good news and getting to go to a hockey game tonight isn't half bad either.