This is an archived blog from when I ran Conscious Public Relations Inc. from 2008-2018. Excuse the potential outdated-ness!
I’ve grown. I feel it from this past week. My emotional boundary was pushed, stretched, and despite the stupid crazy week, I crossed off some major projects off my list, cleared my desk of some of the paperwork, and slayed. I also had four free nights out of the seven days, which almost never happens.
I am beginning to be easier on myself when I don’t do tasks when I wanted to in a certain time, because everything can be (and usually is) shuffled around. This is an important part of how trained control freaks have to learn flexibility, I believe. For the first time in awhile I had to postpone meetings and ask people to cut down the meeting time, and I felt good about it. Despite not having control of time, I can still control what I do in the time I’m given. That’s an important distinction.
At eWomenNetwork Van’s Accelerated Networking Dinner, speaker Julie Davis talked about how to simplify your life and business, make more room in your calendar, and be more productive. She said to limit your to-do list to three items (not 10), and if they’re still on your list after three days, delegate or eliminate. I can’t do that for everything; my to-do lists might stay as they are for more than a year, but for me the tasks still need to get done, and sometimes only I can do them. But they were good tips to learn.
I presented at my high school’s Career Day, which I wish I had when I was in high school. The Powerpoint presentation failed, a student slept through my talk, and no one I gave my card to has requested the slides yet. And that’s alright. These kids will learn. I told them the future was up to them. They’ll learn that, whether now or 10 years from now. Most were respectful, so I know at least the future will have decent manners. And hopefully they’ll continue to listen. I just finished reading Seth Godin’s Tribes and he says that real leaders listen. I am a listener. This is good.
At Sunday night’s women’s group I also learned about why my parents are the way they are, and how that’s trained me to be the person I am. It was a huge a-ha about myself, and I’m grateful for the awareness. I’m still processing the concepts. And I’ve had the conversation more than once about how it’s all up to the kids of the future. If we continue to treat little girls and little boys the way we were treated, the world will not change. Equality will not happen. It’s getting better, kids are getting smarter, but it’s still up to us. I’ve labelled myself the mean aunt, but someone’s gotta do it with my niece. She ain’t a princess. And I think she’s over that phase anyway.
Fuck princes and princesses. (Sorry, Disney.) Let’s be artists, leaders, pioneers, innovators, inventors, disruptors, and changemakers.
