Modern Times

No matter how many years I fly to and fro, many times for business purposes, I'll never get past my amazement at how we can be in entirely different states, entirely different business environments, entirely different cultures, all in the same day. After getting up at 4:00 this morning, I flew to Seattle, drove to Tacoma to visit a prospective client, back to Seattle to participate in a managers' meeting then back to the airport (driving a pseudo-PT Cruiser wierd sort of rental). Now I'm sitting in front of my computer at home, updating my beloved blog before I get to the real work I need to get done tonight.

Not only that, I'm now istening to the third CD in the Now, Discover Your Strengths audio book series while typing. I figure about every 10th or 15th line actually sinks in this way but I can honestly say I got through the whole thing when I return it to its owner tomorrow. That will leave me with only minimal guilt, I suppose that's a good thing.

I plummet into a guilt mode way too easily. I can feel guilty on a particular day just because I didn't finish everything on my "to do" list. Yikes! That's pitiful and I'm not going down that path today. I believe that my mom and dad did a great job of teaching me to take responsibility, the part of that they neglected to point out was that there are boundaries you need to set to ensure you are even remotely successful in meeting expectations. Instead, I never say no and consequently never finish on time, I never am as prepared as I should have been, rarely plan ahead (scrambling at the last minute). I do agree with what I just heard him say, I obsess on my weaknesses rather than focus on my strengths. I think this gets back to me never feeling like I'm good enough.

Of course the next question is, what are my strengths? I think I need the opinions of many here, not just mine. It's very difficult for me to be honest about what I think I'm good at. I can generally find fault in anything (another weakness).

• I could say my passion around supporting particular nonprofit organizations is a strength but I could also share some downsides of this .

• I could say that I am pretty good at relationship building but I could also say there are some people I just can't get through to or figure out.

• I could say I'm a good mom and grammy although my kids might have something to say about that.

So, I guess I need to work the next few weeks to fill in the blanks and ask the people around me what they think my strengths are. It will be interesting to see if any of them agree with each other. Kara, you start.

Time to practice before I come back down here to work.