Saturday, April 25, 2009

Another month

I seem to be good for one blog a month these days I am sorry to say. I have gotten some nice comments on previous blogs. I thank you for those. I have a full schedule and it makes it hard to find time to sit and do it. The good news is  I keep collecting ideas for future blogs. I need to put blogging on my calendar.

We just got back from the NAB Convention (National Association of Broadcasters) in Las Vegas a couple of days ago. We drove there since I was not on the company dime and we stayed with Sandi's granddaughter and her new husband. It was pleasant to be with family away from casinos. I did not gamble at all. It was fun to just hang out at the show and not have to work the booth. I did not have a big list of toys I wanted to see. I just wanted to hang out and be social. I met some people I had talked to on the phone and caught up with friends I had not seen in a long while. I was telling a friend I prefer people over equipment these days.  

I think the social change took place long ago when I was freelance but I never realized it. In the past I would go around a fix equipment for people. A lot of times people would stay and chat while I worked. It was fun to meet new people. I learned how to chat with a total stranger and start a friendship. Life is such a wonderful opportunity to connect with people. I was terminally shy for many years, I heard from people later that some though I was stuck up. I was upset to hear that because it could not be farther from the truth. I worked harder to make changes to be more outgoing. I became a good listener.

These days look at everything I do with the same attitude of change and improve. I love to make improvements in how I live my life. My Buddhist practice has helped me to change and grow as a person. When I see things in my life I don't feel good about I work to make it better. Projects are good for that because every time I finish one I look to see what I could have done better. I am finding the more I change and grow the easier it is to change and grow.  Changes build on changes, growth on growth.

My task list management has helped to calm the noise in my head. I am able to capture, manage  and complete a lot of tasks. It is not to say I don't still have roadblocks. I am revising my home budgets and we filed extensions for taxes. It is interesting to note I deal with budgets at work everyday as part of my projects and I do well with them. Now I need to apply the same principles in to my personal life. I made up a budget in Excel since the one in Quicken was not to my liking. Blogging today is part of my tax avoidance plan. It's good to have a plan.

I am also finding the more planning I do in my work life, the better I am at planning my home life. Back in the day I just let life unfold. Now I look at life as a projects with an end goal, risk log and a path to make it to the finish.

My main point of this blog is don't give up. Don't accept your life the way it is. Change doesn't happen over night. Getting the life you want starts with a vision. As Sandi has told me over and over "It's like eating an elephant, a bite at a time". Don't accept limitations. Live the best one can in this life, in harmony with the earth and it's people.

Love,

April