Challenges

Challenges seemed to bombard me today. There was nothing that was just too hard to do, it was just stuff out of the norm and out of my comfort zone. My bosses weren’t in the office today so all in all, it was a great day. I’ll not complain. What made my day challenging was the lack of stuff to do. Never before have I just read a personal book on company time but today was the first day that I did it. I actually had time to read two chapters. I could’ve read more, but the guilt remained. That darn work ethic I asked several departments for work to do and then I wasn’t able to drag out the task to take a long time. Both people were flabbergasted how quickly I got the jobs done. I can’t work slowly. It’s either not in my DNA or it is my OCD behavior to the job done and get it done in warp speed.

My day closed with me joining a few of the other administrative assistants at Parisian’s to kill some time. From there we were on to the IAAP meeting at the Capital City Club. For those of you not familiar with the Club, it’s the ritzy, high flalutten place in Mont. IAAP is a administrative professional’s organization focused on personal development. It was interesting but yet another set of challenges. Not only did I have meet about 10 women that were so much more the administrative professional than I, but I had to get over my shyness with some public speaking. Yep, you heard me right. Public speaking. Not my forte nor my favorite thing to do. A friend at work spoke on impromptu speaking and then had each lady there get up and speak on a topic. Thankfully, I was given the topic of “my favorite animal.” I bit the bullet and got up to speak. Oh sure the nerves kicked in but no where near what they have been in the past. I spoke for about 45 seconds about why I like cats and how much like a cat I was. I sat down and several people actually said that I did a good job and that they could tell that I had done some public speaking in the past. I guess speaking to 9,000 + a few times and then teaching a training class has really paid off. They’ve asked me to join the group of which I have thought of doing it, but that is only if the company will pay the dues. It’s $100 to join for a year membership and then $20 per month for dinner. The dinner will need to come out of my pocket but it’s a good meal so that may not be too bad to swallow. I may have even found someone else to take cake decorating classes with me. But, a very large challenge may still lay ahead of me. Fran from the AL Forestry Association (I interviewed there before I got on with Alfa) may be a visitor to the group in a few weeks. It should prove to be interesting to say the least.

So thus my day ended on an up note. I felt good about the challenges that I had overcome. A new mountain crossed for my book today. Why did I ever say my life wasn’t interesting? I’ll close with the following quote:

“Our lives are not determined by what happens to us but by how we react to what happens, not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes. It is a catalyst, a spark that creates extraordinary results.” —- Anonymous