So I’m sitting here in my teeny, tiny office (it’s 26” X 50”,
no joke) feeling very blessed today. Since
the first of the year, I’ve set the daily goal of completing at least three
action items for Cardio Kung Fu so that when I look back next December, I can
say “holy crap, look at all the things I accomplished over the past year”
(truth be told, it will probably have more expletives because that’s just me
but I’m censoring myself so as not to offend readers).
One of the recurring to-dos on my list has been getting my
teeny tiny office done, which had multiple steps. I’m literally sitting in what used to be my
husband’s closet (don’t worry, he’s not closetless, I gave up my old closet to
him and we turned our spare bed room into a new FABULOUS closet) so there were
holes to be patched, walls to be painted, shelves to be hung, a desk top to be
cut to the right size ( 19” X 25 ½” with a little notch to accommodate the door
frame, every inch of real estate matters in here…), my board of world
domination to be hung (ok, it’s just a bulletin board but board of world
domination sounds more awesome to me) and organizing of all the businessy stuff
I’ve collected over the last several months and had stowed in various locations
around our teeny, tiny house.
Let me back up a step (figuratively not literally, note the
afore mentioned office size). It’s been
a really rough couple of years, I got laid off from the job I thought I would
retire from back in early 2011, I was unemployed for over a year, I had to
start all over with a part-time retail job that brought part-time pay and
retail hours with it, which was a huge change for me, and then I finally got a
full-time office job that I guess I was excelling at from the feedback I got
from my manager but that ate me alive (I had to work 55 hours a week to feel
like I was just two inches below the water line with a cement block attached to
my ankle). I’ve had a passion for Kung
Fu since the jr ninja and I started taking lessons three years ago and I’ve
been working on developing Cardio Kung Fu for about the last 9 months but my
efforts were seriously derailed with the full-time job that ate me alive. 55 hours a week in a really stressful
environment took its toll on me physically, mentally and emotionally. CKF had to be set aside due the laws of time
and space (darned you Albert Einstein), the house was always a mess, and
somehow the jr ninja made the B honor roll even though I felt I was in the
running for Worst Mother Ever since my parenting became reactive rather than proactive
because I simply wasn’t home much and when I was, I was so exhausted and
stressed out I didn’t have enough in me to engage proactively. I was in firefighter mode. I was living on 4 hours of sleep that were
constantly filled with work related nightmares, I lost 15 pounds from the
stress, my heart rate slowed by 40%, and I was diagnosed with an irregular
heart beat in December. I was literally dying.
Something had to change. With the blessing of my husband (that sounds
wrong but I can’t think of a different way to say it and he will be the first
one to tell you he can’t make me do anything I don’t want to) I went back to
the part-time retail job and decided to get back to developing CKF with the
thought that with the extra time, I could regain my health, get back to
proactive parenting, clean the house, add more CKF classes, and look into
licensing this awesome fitness program.
Fast forward to this morning and here I sit, in my teeny
tiny office writing this blog post. My
husband is traveling for business this week and he finished my desk top right
before he left yesterday. After I got
the jr ninja to school this morning, I finished putting the last essential items
in place and here I am, actually working in of my teeny tiny office for the
first time ever and I have to admit, even though I’m not really the mushy-girly
type, I’m feeling kind of mushy and girly about this. I’ve been consistent with my goal of daily
action steps and in some ways, I feel busier than I did a few short months ago,
but it’s in a good way. I’m learning
that I’m in the zone and doing my best work when I’m focused on helping others
and this little business I’m building from my teeny tiny office is going to be
HUGE someday because it’s all about helping people achieve positive benefits in
their lives, whether they are students or aspiring ninjas. So keep watching, my best days are ahead of
me, 2013 is gonna rock, I’m pretty sure.
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