Just one of THOSE days.

Today started as just “one of those days.” Last night I had planned to wake up early for a nice, long workout in the gym then head into work. Instead, when my alarm went off, I decided to sleep in, convincing myself to head to the gym after work. Until I start my project at work, I have odds and end tasks to complete, but for the majority of my work days recently, I have spent time developing Career Goals (which is a mandatory process for us at Accenture), writing for my blog, sorting out flights and completing my 2011 taxes. Back real quick to the writing Career Goals part – I think one of my challenges is writing about myself, which is why I had a big fear about starting a blog in the first place. When situations arise such as, “Tell us about yourself in 10 words or less. What is one unusual fact about you? Name 5 of your strengths and weaknesses” – I literally am almost always dumbfounded. So many times I kick myself when about 5 hours after the question has been asked, I come up with that witty, perfect answer. I'm just not quick enough on my feet at the poignant time. Nor do I have the ability to remember small things I have completed in my past to elaborate on as a skill set or accomplishment. I can thank my mom for pointing out those little things to me along the way for certain things like writing college essays, job interviews, etc. – she’s pretty great at this type of thing.

My anxiety of writing these bios and career goals, compounded with wanting to perform well on the few tasks I had been assigned for work and letting worry about my future get the best of me, I was a wreck heading toward a disaster this morning. After re-grouping over a nice cup of muesli in the office lounge, I came back to re-read the quote from Café Darling this morning:

 

"If you risk nothing, then you risk everything."
(I think this quote pretty much speaks for itself for the train of thought I am trying to convey)

I also took a minute to visit a few of my favorite sites, Ruthie Dean’s blog: http://ruthiedean.com/ (she is my childhood's best friend (Rachel)’s sister) and Pinterest (if you are not signed up for it yet, you should be.) These two sites were the swift kick in the backside I needed to snap out of my anxious self-absorption. Ruthie’s husband Michael was admitted to the hospital for the next 3-5 days after he began losing his vision last weekend and had indecisive MRI results. Please pray that angels are watching over him and Ruthie as additional tests are run. Anxiousness and fear clearly have no place in my life right now as I can’t even fathom how they are feeling. This puts everything right back into perspective for me. If interested, you can sign up on the “prayer list” Ruthie set up for updates, etc. on Michael’s progress.

http://ruthiedean.us4.list-manage.com/subscribe/post

Pinterest gave me a great stumble-upon today as well with a post from this blog:

http://cherishinghopesanddreams.blogspot.com.au

The writer of the blog gave her readers a challenge that I myself will take and you might find encouraging as well. It might just solve my above fear and help me learn even more about myself.
Every day, for the next 30 days, there is a question that you have to answer open and honestly about yourself. Phew, this won’t be easy, but I accept the challenge.

Day One:


          List 20 random facts about yourself.
 (ok- here goes nothing...)

1.      I am a joyful person – it doesn’t take much to always have a smile on your face

2.      My stress release is running mostly, but any type of workout will do

3.      I like to sleep with a large, fluffy duvet and as many squishy pillows as possible

4.      Sunflowers are my #1 favorite flower

5.      I like the feeling of rubbing bear feet on carpet and the feeling of cold sheets

6.      My favorite part of entering into an airport is the feeling of excitement, but more importantly, the clicking sound of a suitcase rolling across the floor tiles

7.      I no longer eat meat, I am what they call a “pescetarian”

8.      My first thought when I see something in a store is, “I can easily make that.”

9.      Reading has always been a hobby of mine and I now get new recommendations from spying on other people’s books on the train

10.  I always need some type of sound playing, whether its music or white noise – I don’t like when it’s so quiet you can hear your ears ringing

11.  Top item on my bucket list is to have visited every continent by the time I am 30

12.  I have a tattoo of my mom’s initials - She died when I was 10 months old

13.  My family is more important to me than anything else in the entire world

14.  I don’t like asking for help, I like to think I am invincible and completely self-sufficient – Humility comes in large doses when needed though

15.  I am stubborn (see #14)

16.  Despite popular belief, I am a hopeless romantic and want a husband one day that I can have children with and love endlessly until I am 110 years old

17.  I love the feeling of adrenaline rushes (which probably led to my skydiving experience and the balcony jumping incident)

18.  I have a passion for traveling and talking to people from different cultures, backgrounds and beliefs

19.  My favorite fruit is the strawberry, made even better dipped in dark chocolate on the rare occasion.

20.  I truly believe Faith and Doubt go hand in hand. Without one, there is not the other, but having a faith in God is where my joy stems from.



My day ended with the train I normally catch home being cancelled due to a car accident somewhere along the route. Frustrated, I exited the train, caught another train to the Richmond station (which is pretty close to my apartment) only to find the trains still delayed. Even more frustrated, I ran toward the exit, all the while searching for my transport card called "myki." In my usually expert enormous-purse-diving endeavours (ladies, I think you know what I'm talking about - that inbred ability to dive into your large handbag with one hand and easily extract the exact object you're searching for about 2.5 seconds later. Ask a guy to find something in your purse, and it takes them AGES!), I was unable to locate my Myki. I literally stood at the train station exit stall for a solid 8 minutes removing every last object from my purse when I eventually remembered sticking it in my wallet after adding money to it when boarding the train in the city. Idiot me! I bolted out of the station, thought briefly about catching a taxi, then decided against it and just walked the rest of the way home.

Settled into my couch now with a glass of red wine and remembering all the wake up calls I had throughout the day, and the fact on top of that - that I was able to even go to the gym today because my ankle is healed and I have NOTHING to complain about...I am happy to tell you that I am filled with joy. God has blessed me with an amazing family, a great job, I live in a beautiful city, have friends and loved ones constantly surrounding me and am daily reminded that I am blessed. So when you have "one of those days" - just remember, you are just a small part of this large world, and it does NOT revolve around you. Be grateful for what you have, take risks and above all Choose Joy (as my dear friend Emily would say.)

XX