Giving Feels Good

We received an email at work recently about the needs of some of our colleagues recently affected by natural disasters; from the fires in California to the hurricanes hitting our coasts, many of our employees have been displaced and found in need.
Our organization has set up a relief fund specifically to help our own and encouraged us that if each employee gave only $5, it could make a tremendous impact for these people.
In my department, we have a lady who is all in, whatever it is. She is engaged, she is fun, and she is always on board. She called me over last week because her security level on the computer won\’t allow her to access the web page to make a donation. So I brought her to my desk and got her all set up to do what she wanted.
As she navigated her way to the correct page, she was chatting about how important it is that we help one another. She talked about some negative feedback she had heard, someone saying, “I already gave and I\’m not giving any more.” She was indignant. It is only $5, she said, and these are our own.
It struck me that this woman is within a year of retirement and feverishly saving to ensure she can afford to do it and that she is on the lower end of our pay grades. But she was smiling from ear to ear as she made her donation, which exceeded the asked for $5, and she said, “I will gladly forego this month\’s pedicure to help my coworkers. We can all afford to give up a meal out, or a salon appointment, or a luxury purchase, to help those in need.”
I was also struck by her smile. She smiled bigger in her giving than she would have smiled if I had brought her flowers, or given her a gift card. She is an exuberant, cheerful, caring woman, and for her, there was more pleasure in giving than receiving by far. She was joyful in wanting to make a difference, and she did. But not only in her donation, in my day as well. Seeing her, I felt refreshed by her passion.
Giving feels so good, and it made me glad that we have so many opportunities to do so.

Boss\'s Day

A head’s up to everyone reading this, next Monday, October 16th, is Boss’s Day!
I have had numerous different bosses over the years, and I have worked hard in myself to not allow the quality of my boss to impact my day or my personal life.  But there is no question, a great boss is hard to come by and makes a big difference!

I had a great pleasure once several years ago to have an interim manager who, despite his short tenure supporting our team, made a great impact on me.  He was empowering, he had a great philosophy on sharing knowledge, and he was incredibly supportive.  Even after he left, I would think to myself, “what would he suggest in this situation?”  And I could imagine him leading me with questions to the resolution.  I have never had another boss who combined data analysis and inspired leadership so well.
I’ve talked before about how having terrible bosses have been great learning experiences for me.  I have developed my own personal leadership style by emulating the things I have learned that are good and steering clear of the disastrous things I have seen.  I have learned to be patient, to have compassion, to build trust, to empower others and develop people, among other things, by observing the examples of other leaders and searching within myself for my own authentic style of leadership.
My husband has been voted best and funniest manager in his workplace and has a great way of connecting with his team and with people in general.  He is a very authentic guy, supportive and a good listener, and stands by his team no matter what.  This is not something he learned in school, but rather just by being someone who is true to himself and committed to doing the right thing.
We don’t always have the boss we would love, but if you have a boss that you appreciate, Monday is the day!

Change on the Horizon

I have always embraced change. I find change refreshing, and yes, sometimes a little intimidating. But I don\’t like to let the cobwebs of routine grow all over me if I can help it.
I am now embracing a new change with my job, and I am so excited about it!
It is something totally new for me, and while my past experiences will surely be an asset, it will be all new territory. All new people, and all new opportunities. I am so excited to take on this challenge!
I feel like I am going somewhere that I will be needed, and I like that feeling. I want to be able to offer my talents and abilities to a place in need and I find that most energizing of all. I wake up a little better in the morning feeling like I could make a difference.
Of course, it is a major challenge to take on while in one of the hardest school terms I have faced (I am currently in Finance 500), but there is something to be said for learning to cope with a lot of change all at once. I feel like, in a few months time, I will be a stronger and more well-rounded person.
There is a risk, of course. I may hate it. The people may dislike me. I may regret making a move, and there\’s always a chance I\’ll actually fail at the job itself. But I am okay with all of these things. I need to learn something new, and I believe that the risk, in this case, will equal a reward (and that is a good financial concept!).
It\’s nice to go to a new place and take with you the confidence and experience you have gained, but with a chance to start over and apply the things you learned from mistakes and trial and error, and start off fresh. Of course, it won\’t take long to make new mistakes and for things to lose that newness, but we have to do these things from time to time so we don\’t get stagnant.
I also hope I leave behind me something good, something that will make it easier for the next person to follow. And I hope my team will miss me a little, after all, I did try to make that place fun!
Perhaps it is the blood of my sea-faring ancestors that causes me (and those in my immediate family also) to love change and adventure. We are a family that loves travel and new challenges! And while my first North American ancestor took it a little far – as far as we can tell he ran off to sea and died of something (maybe scurvy! ARRR!) – I hope I can make this change with excitement and without dying from a lack of nutrition!
I am eager to begin this new chapter of my life!

The Friend of a Friend

People always make jokes about how great the Internet could have been but we’ve ruined its potential with memes and fake news.  And there’s no doubt, I’ve witnessed plenty of bad coming out of the Internet and social media.  But there are good things, too!

The best thing to ever come out of the Internet for me was, of course, my husband.  That is a story all its own.  But the Internet has given me other great relationships, too.  I met who I referred to as my “adopted grandfather” online, and through him we became friends with one another’s family, and even though he has since passed away, I try to stay in touch with them.  And some of my very best friends that I have met in the various places that I have lived are now people I communicate with primarily via the email.  One of the girls I went to high school with is one of those friends, and through her and the web, I have made another good friend who did a great thing for me this past spring!

My friend introduced us via Facebook a number of years ago, and we kind of just chit-chatted, but then it turned out we had a lot in common, especially our love of ESPN Pigskin Pick’ems!  Over the years, we have become good friends, mostly outside of the influence of our mutual friend and to this day we have yet to meet face to face.
My high school friend got married this spring, and I was unable to travel to attend her wedding; however, our mutual friend was her photographer and stood in my place to give a speech that I had composed for my friend and her new husband.
It was such a joy for me to watch the video of my high school friend listening to my words being read by someone we both knew, but whom I had never even met in person.  And what a gift it was to me that I was able to be included in a small way at her wedding, even though I couldn’t be there.
In some ways, I would still prefer to put pen to paper (or at least paper into a typewriter – which yes, I did learn to type on a typewriter!), and post letters to the mail with hand written notes.  But I am grateful for the way that I have been able to make new friends and participate in things like my friend’s wedding from far away.

And I am thankful for both of those friends, who encourage me everyday!

Happy Customer Service Week

This week is Customer Service Week, and so those of us who have functions that touch on customer service are celebrating.  And not just celebrating, but reflecting on the things that make our jobs interesting, difficult, or special. 
I never wanted a job in customer service, but for the past eight years or so, every function I have worked has touched the customer in some way and has had me interacting with them.  My customers are a diverse group of people, from attorneys to the general public and clients of our business.  I have had a lot of practice in listening actively to issues and trying to demonstrate compassion while taking action on their issues.
However, not a day passes that I don’t learn something new.
The first time I had to deal with an angry customer I was nervous, but soon learned that by listening carefully and empathizing with their issue I could turn a situation around.  Once, by simply apologizing to a customer for an error made, she backed off from wanting to seek reimbursement.  She stated, “All I wanted was for someone to take responsibility for this.” 
Not every aspect of my job involves dealing with external customers either.  As both a leader and a service professional, I take my internal customers seriously, too.  Often, they require information or support from me or my team here, and I think it is just as critical to show them excellent service as I do to those external customers.  After all, I am also a customer to my internal customers.  We need each other.
We all know, too, that not every person working in customer service is cut out for the task.  There are businesses I have called where not one person could give me proper service, while there are other places where the service cannot be matched.  And that makes all the difference to me as a consumer.  I will almost always pay more to be treated courteously and have a good support group to call when things don’t work out.
In fact, that is one of my favorite things about Fitbit!  They have great customer service.  They are quick and courteous to respond to me and have replaced defective items without any hassle to me in the past.  When I am dealing with a difficult situation or an unhappy person, I often think of the great service I have had in the past and realize that helping other people really isn’t hard.  You just have to commit to it, and listen.

So today, my hat is off to all of those who work in one of the many numerous industries where they provide service and support in person or via email or phone.  We can make a difference in a person’s day, and it is a great privilege that we can!

My Fitbit Ionic Review

I am pleased with my new Fitbit Ionic!
I had pre-ordered it back in August and received it on Friday last week, so I got to test it out all weekend, and I have to say it met my expectations!
First of all, it has a more comfortable fit than the Fitbit Blaze that I have been wearing for the past 18 months.  While similar in appearance, it has a slightly better way of fitting.  Not that I ever found my Blaze uncomfortable but this is an improvement!
The display is clear, and the menu options are easy to use.  With minimal effort, I was able to sync my Skull Candy Bluetooth headphones to the Ionic itself, and then using the Windows 10 app on my laptop, I was able to transfer about 5 hours’ worth of music directly to the Ionic itself, meaning I can work out with my music without need of my cell phone!
Part of my Day Zero Project is to complete one half-marathon a month for 12 consecutive months.  So, since I had been putting it off all of September, on Saturday morning I headed out to the park and got to give the onboard GPS a whirl.  This was something Fitbit had done well with on the Surge, but for some reason didn’t incorporate into the Blaze.  It was great having the GPS on the device itself. 
Before starting my workout, I turned on my headphones and it paired automatically to my Fitbit.  Then I started my music.  After this, I backed out of the music and started a “Run” under the exercise menu.  It automatically detected the GPS (which admittedly did take about a full minute to do) and then off I went.  My miles were mapped accurately, and the battery held up well. 
I also used my rowing machine, and it worked very well, no issues at all.  The Ionic has improved heart rate tracking, which I am curious to see over time if it changes my average very much (having recently been sick threw my heart rate chart way off!).
Despite being waterproof, I cannot bring myself to wear it in the shower.  However, it was a consolation when cleaning my house that water splashing onto the device was no big deal.  I have found in the past, though, that even my non-waterproof devices have done okay with a little water.  They are sturdy!
The sleep tracker worked normally and accurately on all 3 nights I have had it.  The fact that I got zero minutes of deep sleep last night is probably accurate – I am a light sleeper!
I did set up the notifications for texts and email to display on my Fitbit screen, but after 2 texts I decided that this was going to drive me insane and shut it off.  However, it was easy to do and worked perfectly.  I just don’t know why anyone wants to be that connected. 
The new Ionic has a much nicer charging method than all previous Fitbits and despite my excessive use of functions this weekend the battery life held up very well.  Overall, I am pleased with it.
I would advise others that this is still primarily a fitness watch.  Despite coming with apps like Starbucks and local weather, it is still primarily geared toward fitness.  I prefer this, as this is the reason I am wearing it.  It is my hourly encouragement to get up and get moving, it is my accountability partner in maintaining my weight, and it is my alarm clock to remind me to get up and get my booty in gear.  It is awesome that it can onboard the music and GPS and I expect those things will enhance my fitness experience.  But overall, those looking for it to be something other than a fitness smartwatch may be disappointed.  I, however, am thrilled!

Balancing Work and Life

Even though we are constantly told the importance of a work-life balance many people still openly struggle with this.  I work in a diverse environment and some of my colleagues set good examples of a positive work-life balance while others are dismal at it.  How many times have I come into work in the morning to see emails that were sent to me at 11pm the night before?  Or 2am?
The hardest part of this for many people is that some leaders have an expectation that you are always “on” – that is, you are always receiving and responding to requests.  I have encountered many leaders who, misunderstanding their lack of balance as a healthy work ethic, have disdain for anyone who isn’t constantly plugged in and answering email.  This can be challenging because where I am trying to maintain a work-life balance I feel like I am not measuring up to expectations.  I do not even work in an exempt position, and yet even then there are times I feel the weight of the expectation.
Good leaders are those that understand their teams are made up of people with lives.  These are people with children, spouses, hobbies, other obligations such as caregiving, and school, among numerous other things.  And no one is going to perform optimally if they never have time to recharge.
I think of my mother as a good example.  She is a manager with a team of over 100 people that cover a 24-hour operation.  For her, it truly never ends.  She will check her email periodically in her off time, but only responds to truly urgent requests.  She understands that for business as usual issues, they can wait until she returns to business, as usual.
I admire this.  As a leader, she understands being accessible to her team; however, she will defer to the leadership of those under her to make routine decisions in her absence.  A good example of how a work-life balance can be modeled.
Life places demands on us differently in different seasons of our lives.  Sometimes people are placed in situations better suited to working longer hours, while others are not.  I am not advocating a 6 hour work day and then leaving before the work is done; however, no one can be plugged in for 18 hours a day and function optimally.  Yet, day after day I see people who think they are, and it’s troubling to me.
Instead, they are missing out on time with their family, or finally devoting time to health and fitness.  Or they have dropped out of things they once enjoyed doing, stopped pursuing hobbies, or being involved in their churches or the community.  I hear many of these people say, “someday when I have time….” And in truth, we never know how long we have, or how long that circular pattern of behavior will last. 
So, today I acknowledge the hard workers, who come in each day and give their best to their work, support their teams and processes, and then go home at the end of the day knowing that work helps us make a living, but everything else is life!

Leading Effective Giving and Charity

Recently, between work and my personal life, I have seen different groups of people putting together charitable efforts in order to help hurricane victims. While I admire and support anyone who wants to help someone in need, many people go about this in a very disorganized and unsuccessful way. I hate to see someone\’s efforts fail to be successful, especially when their motives are so good!

For a couple years, I was the chairman of a corporate outreach committee and we had very successful years running events. I credit this to my amazing team of people who were totally enthusiastic and organized. We had great ideas, but even a merely good idea can be successful if it is executed correctly.
I wanted to share some of the strategies we used when organizing events (some of which we learned through observing others and asking questions!). We supported all sorts of organizations, from veterans groups to women\’s shelters to children\’s hospitals, and each and every event turned out to be wildly successful for a few very simple reasons.
Donated items: Several of our events centered around donated items, such as collecting toiletries and clothing for shelters to collecting toys for toy drives. The key to this is creating a theme to the donation drive over time, which gives people a focus and a direction for their giving. Most people want to give, but they don\’t know how to do so effectively and they shy away from it. With our toy drive, we created an Angel Tree, and we placed numerous little angels all over it, pink for girls and blue for boys, with an age range and some general ideas on the angel. If someone picked an angel, they knew exactly what type of toy to bring. This proved tremendously successful, as I had to fill the tree with new angels three times to accommodate the participation. In the end, it was several full carloads that were collected for donation. Same thing applies to toiletry collections or food drives. June might have been “mac and cheese” month for the food drive, and the box would be filled with it because people knew exactly what to get. Same with toiletries, if you specified one day was for baby items, and the next day was for toothpaste, people participated far more heavily than without any direction.
Cash donations: I think cash donations are even easier to get than donated goods, and food always works. We successfully sold lunch plates for a flat price with all proceeds benefiting the charity we supported. Everyone loves food. We also had silent auctions with mother\’s day baskets, where different groups were assigned a theme to create a beautiful basket, with themes of a spa day, foodie mom, or arts and crafts, and the baskets were put up for silent auction. Many of our baskets were sold off for four or five times the actual cost of the basket because people loved to participate. Healthy competition also works. Creating teams of people to see who can raise the most money inspires a lot of enthusiasm with people coming up with their own creative ideas on getting money! Another thing we did, almost to too much success based on the work it left us, was having penny wars! Each team was tasked with generating the most pennies in their bucket but could sabotage other teams but putting silver coins in their buckets which would then offset an equal number of pennies. Competition became fierce over this! People were bringing in rolls of quarters to dump in opposing team buckets! In the end, we raised hundreds of dollars, and left ourselves with quite a task of counting and rolling coins!
I have found that people are unbelievably generous, and the only difference between a successful event and not is organization. Providing themes, competition and fun bring people in. People will amaze you with their creativity when you ask for their ideas and contributions.

The one last tip to success is to ask. If you believe in your cause and people see your passion, they will give. I have never had trouble just asking for people to sign up and donate, most people are completely willing to do so.

My Mission Statement as a Writer

I believe strongly in mission statements. Good organizations have them, and productive people have them, too. Mission statements keep people on track. I remember a sermon I listened to recently where the pastor talked about someone who was so fired up with great ideas, but because he lacked a mission or focus on what specifically he was trying to do, he was totally unproductive. He had the passion and the brain power, but without a focal point, he achieved nothing.
Even in my quest for health and fitness, I have a mission: to incrementally and continuously improve my health. It is not to get six-pack abs, or to run an 8-minute mile, or to have the perfect body. It is to be healthy. Taking my family history into account and the genetic conditions I am predisposed to, coupled with my inherent enjoyment of being active and fit, I aim to be healthy. If in the process I become faster or someday end up buff, that\’s awesome. But it is not my goal. And because I stick to trying to be healthy, I do see improvement in that all the time. And I don\’t get as easily discouraged when I don\’t start looking a certain way, because it wasn\’t my goal. It doesn\’t make me give up.
So it is as a writer. I read a lot of different stuff from blogs to books, and in those readings I am trying to be informed or deeply educated, and sometimes I am reading to be persuaded, and sometimes I am reading to be entertained. All of the writers I read have a clear purpose of what they are trying to do with their writing – and it keeps them focused and it keeps their reader more engaged.
My mission statement as a writer is this: to encourage, uplift and empower. Those are the things I hope my writing achieves, whether it is my prose or poetry. Sometimes it is through humor or amusement, sometimes it is informational in nature (such as how I share with people that I have used my Fitbit to empower me in my health goals), and sometimes it is truly just sharing stories in the hope people see themselves in them. It keeps me on track.
I am well informed about what is going on in the world. It is important to me that I am educated on current events and know what is going on, and I am aware of the negativity. I think it is important because without knowing, you don\’t know where the needs are, and without that it\’s hard to know how to help anyone. And without it, you never see the bright side of human nature, and all of the good that people are doing.
But the more I see what is going on, the more I hope to encourage others. I want people to feel empowered to live fully and to make a difference where they can. I want people to live out their passions. It would be the ultimate fulfillment of my goal as a writer for someone to read my work and say, “You inspired me to do the thing I always dreamed of doing.”

Being a Writer

I have always loved to write.  I started writing short stories and poetry as a kid, then longer stories and I have even tried my hand at writing songs.  As a young college student, I used to write pretend speeches for a politician or leader, trying to exercise the things I was learning in school.  As a student now, I am constantly writing.  I can easily write a couple thousand words a week for school alone.
But there are definitely days when I can sit there and stare out the window and feel like I have nothing to say.
Those moments don’t come along very often, but they always frighten me when they do.  I begin to wonder, “Am I done?”  The last time, I texted my sisters and told them I’d sprung a leak – a writer’s leak!  My creativity well was empty!
But I think the one thing I have realized is that people with passion always have something to say.  If you asked me to list the things I am passionate about, I would probably hesitate, because I don’t know which to name first.  But then I’d get on a roll and never stop: faith, fitness, family, marriage, poetry, politics, current events, health care, leadership, productivity…and the list goes on and on!
So, when I find myself panicking that I have said all that I can say, I examine my passions.  Some topics I could dedicate an entire blog series to discussing.  Sometimes, I just sit and read poetry and all of the sudden, I am inspired with my own idea.  I can flip through the news websites and find something to interest me.  I can think about the people that I know are struggling with something and write something to encourage them.
I hope that most of what I write is meaningful, but even on the days when it is merely doodling down my ideas, at least I am writing.  I am keeping it flowing.
After a long hiatus from poetry writing, I started up again this June.  I was inspired by the fact that I had published my own book of poetry, which ended with a poem I wrote in 2013.  But then I realized how much I have grown since then, how many ideas I have had, and new experiences, questions about life and new blessings discovered.  On June 4th, I sat myself down to try my hand at writing a poem.  Since then, I have written over 80 new poems, and I am so proud of them.  I cannot wait to share them with everyone.
My first major as a college student at the age of 18 was Professional Writing.  In my very first semester, I took a class called Classical and Modern Rhetoric and the text for that class was a series of essays, speeches, and excerpts from books, including ancient writings all the way up through modern essays, arguments, and advertisements!  I always imagined myself writing something to someday be included in a book like that. 
One thing is for sure, I will never write anything that will be included in a book like that if I don’t write.  So I will write about my passions, and find new ways to express how I feel about them because that is the only way to even begin to hope that I will.
And I encourage my writer friends to write.  As Jeff Goins states, don’t call yourself an aspiring writer.  If you write you are a writer – so be one!