Barbara and I figured this out: instead of imagining all the people who might criticize you gathered in one place (it seemed like a model of efficiency at the time), it is much more fun to imagine your own personal fan club: a collection of the people who think you’re great, no matter what you do. Those people rock! Just picturing them made us happy. BTW they weren’t all people. At least one was a cat.
Who are the people in your personal fan club?
Michelle learned this when she lost her job last week:
“You are easily replaced and people at work might care about you for a moment but then they move on because they’re glad it’s not them. The people who really care about you are the ones you choose to have in your life.”
OK so I tried to get the deal from Eddie Bauer: 25% off and free shipping if you use your card. And I had just remembered that I even had a card, so why not. Worth one more check or a few payment clicks for those kinds of savings, right? But then the website didn’t like my card. And neither did the nice lady on the phone. I asked for the 25% with my own card. She said no but she could still give me the free shipping with another card. OK, whatever.
THEN she changed her mind and said what the heck and gave me the free shipping AND the 25% off!
The year is not over, but “ask” is definitely a trend that will be showing up in the summary! Sometimes it’s little stuff, sometimes big, but there is world of difference between asking and not, I have learned.
I learned this from Yoga Journal (BTW I love Yoga Journal):
“Cultivating gratitude is less an act of creating something that isn’t there and more of a practice of realizing what is. It’s about reminding yourself of the miracles embedded in every second of every day—from the largest blessings to the smallest moments. By practicing shifting your attention to what is real (and not clinging to an idea of what you think should happen), you become more appreciative of even the most mundane moments in life, and for the richness all around.”
I am learning how important it is to know where I’m going.
It could be driving in Boston (see ALL those entries about using a GPS in Boston), for which it’s important to know where I’m going in two ways: know that the GPS picked the right destination, and then know the general idea about the destination (for when the signal is lost in the tunnel AND the cowpath thing freaks out the GPS).
Or it could be knowing where I need to be, as in my dream last night where I was frantically trying to get to a drumming thing but instead climbing ladders in the wrong direction. Bummer.
Or it could be my career.
They all have this in common: Know where you’re going.
I have learned that a day can go any way at all and that I can’t tell how the day is going to go, just by how it starts.
Oh. Big.
I am learning that the less dependent I am on external validation, the more stable I am. Fewer highs, perhaps, but more meaningful ones. And definitely fewer lows, and not as deep.
What a year!
I have learned that:
“You can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometime, you just might find
You just might find
You get what you need” Mick Jagger/Keith Richards
What have you found?
From a colleague:
“content is not as important as common understanding and communicating”
This is so big I can’t even take it in.
I learn that when the going gets tough, my husband is always there for me!
Oh daughters, marry as well as I did!
Jane's Lessons Learned 