Lately, I've been worried whether my doctor gave me an accurate date or not. In the beginning, she would make comments about how changing the date would only be a few days here or there, so let's just stick with May 15th. However, had I know then what I know now, I would have inquired, is it a couple of days earlier?.. and if so, can we change it?! You see, maternity leave takes effect immediately after the baby is delivered and the month prior to the due date only counts until the baby comes.
So even though I only have five more days of work left, if the baby comes early, not only will I be jipped, I might not have time to finish all I have left to do! But so is the case with life.. which is why I hate procrastinating and usually aim to be ahead of the game. However, given the amount of work that has surfaced onto my plate, it seems any effort I should have made, would have been thwarted.
It makes me think about life and how we can never really plan. Plans are good, being organized is great, checklists make me excited, and that's the point of a goal right? However, should things get in the way of our plans, if something should scatter the set order, if checklists end up being scribbled and not checked off, and if a goal is not met... we have to just rethink it, right?!
And then there are things we can make a routine part of our life and plan around it instead of changing those plans. Simple and small things like prayer, scripture study and being nice.
Being nice? Yes - being nice! Smiling at a random stranger as you make your way into work, offering to help whenever possible, holding the elevator door open when you hear someone fumbling to get in (knowing it's just an additional 10 seconds you'd be waiting), saying "thank you" or "excuse me" or "bless you," saying "good bye and have a nice night!" or "good morning" to the elevator man who checks your badge when you walk in and out of the work elevators, being patient when the post office line is long and someone with a large package is confused, not getting flustered and maintaining your cool while saying "it's okay" when the sandwich girl messes up your order and you're asked to repeat it two more times, and nicely correcting someone when they mispronounce your name, and even being kind to the outsourced Indian folks who can't seem to understand your problem as they scour their manuals to figure out how to respond.
These are but small things that can make or break your day.... if you choose to let it. Don't be a pushover, just be nice about it. There's a nice way to give meaningful and timely feedback to help, and then there's the way that is smeared with negativity and annoyance. It's often hard to choose the former, but why not try it first.
At least that is what I have been thinking about as of late. I can't control what sort of stuff gets thrown my way... I can't control who irritates me or how quickly my hormones react to someone in a short period of time on the inside, but I can choose how I am responding on the outside - hormones and everything! I can choose to smile instead of grimace... to laugh instead of an eye roll, to be uplifting and positive - in light of all the things I have not done, have yet to do and might not be able to do....
And then - of course, the prayer and scripture study comes in handy as my ultimate shield with my positive attitude as my light saber.
Five more days left of work!
2 comments:
Isn't the timing of work so hard??? I worked all the way up until the day I went into labor. I was a week overdue, so during that overdue week I worked from home so I wouldn't scare people in the office. (Even prior to that, they were starting to freak out, apparently worried my child was just going to fall out right in front of them or something.) On the day I went into labor, I continued working for a couple hours even after the contractions started so that I could get in a half day hahaha.
Thanks for the reminder about being nice to people...especially those wanting to get on the elevator. I absolutely despise morning elevator rides with other people. I'm just not in a chatty mood yet at that point. But I really should suck it up and not try to avoid others. :)
WOW, I cannot BELIEVE you worked until the day of labor! That's insane! My back is already dying from my five more days until my one month before due date hahaha. Yeah - I hate elevator rides too - but I'll hold the door and then just revert to my blackberry hehehe.
Post a Comment