Signs

Just in case I needed a sign to tell me what to do about the recent job opportunity/job offering, sometimes life just hits you over the head, grabs you by the shoulders and shouts, "Wake up!"

It seems like the stresses of the soon to be former schedule have been building up to boiling point just in time. I can take these signs as failures or merely as confirmation that I am doing the right thing by taking the new position (yes I got it!).

Yesterday I was severely dressed down over paperwork and mileage. Nevermind I had members (friends, thank you skinnyguy!) telling me after my meetings this week (no matter how well the topic flopped, talk about hearing crickets chirping) that they have shopped around forever and are happy to have found a leader they click with. Nevermind I have members, strangers merely 30 minutes before, hugging me after the meeting and apologizing for having to miss a couple weeks. See this is the problem of being a nice person. People dare to tell you all the stupid stuff because they think you can take it.

Sure I had good excuses last week for half my tallies not reaching the office in time (a tight schedule T-Th not leaving any time for paperwork, late Labor Day mail, a lost deposit -- see tight schedule that left me no room to think). In any case I did not apologize or make excuses. I just said, "Thank you. I will be better." In the back of my mind you know what I was thinking (I will be MORE than better -- I will give you almost no paperwork since that is what you asked for, thank you very much. Is that the kind of thanks I get for all the schlepping and the crazy scheduling I agreed to?). I was also thinking thank goodness I am leaving this mess! This company has such an antiquated way of dealing with paperwork. It's one thing when you are doing this part-time and the paperwork is manageable. It is another thing when you are crazy enough to take it on "full" time and have to dot all i's and cross all t's, meanwhile keeping track of the deposits -- too much! I just want to help people lose weight, thank you very much!

So this happens just before I go into the director's office to give her the "news." I was so nervous but I did it. She is happy for me. I made the right choice. In fact there is another staff member who is retiring from her "day" job and wants to do this full-time now. They needed meetings to give her and here I am giving some up -- perfect! Another sign.

Of course signs that encouraged me in the direction of strongly pursuing a career change included: the recent breakdown of my car's AC in the heat of summer which will cost $1000 to fix (read, by new car now); pesky student loans; promised "in the mail" freelance payments that only seem to arrive at a snail's pace; normally low summer meeting attendance's effect on my paycheck; dying to have my Sunday's back for running, travel, family, social activities (most of my friends/family socialize that day, ie bridal showers, birthdays, etc.); killing myself to find subs to cover meetings on days I have said activities; said crazy schedule's effect on my eating habits and exercise schedule... I could go on.

The culminating effect of it all has given me a big headache and a case of anxiety I didn't realize I had until I started relieving myself of some of these duties.

So those are the signs. Next time I will talk about the how I used these signs to create my Winning Outcome!

PS -- The last two days I ran 4 miles each morning. The legs are tired, but on the comeback trail.