YBalanced

A great blog post by one of my friends @JillMcFarland

It’s 6:00am.  Taylor Swift’s “You Should've Said No” (my current ring-tone on my iPhone) is running the Sand Man away from my dreams.  I am trying to convince myself that I must have set my alarm clock wrong, because it can’t POSSIBLY be time to get up yet.  I reach to my right and with amazing precision am able to hit the snooze alert without opening my eyes or awaking my metabolism by burning too many calories.  I stuff the loved and hated (at least at that moment) phone under my pillow and try to get the most amount of sleep out of those next few precious minutes before Taylor interrupts me again.

On any given morning I can go through this cycle numerous times until I have managed to cut out every extra step in my morning routine in my head.  Yes, I can rock the ponytail today – I don’t have a meeting or class going on.  Yes, I can skip shaving my legs and wear pants today.  I’ll skip making my smoothie this am and just grab two Buddy Fruits for breakfast.  (If you haven’t discovered these miracle foods – you must!)  I remember having a Garfield sleep shirt when I was about 12 that said “I don’t do mornings”.  Unfortunately to this day, Garfield still speaks the truth.

But even through all that negotiating with myself, I still feel the pull of my addiction.  I remember growing up and hearing my Dad’s alarm clock going off in his room each workday morning.  I eventually became old enough to realize that the reason it goes off more than once a morning is because of that amazing snooze button.  (See, I learned the benefits of this option long ago!)  Of course, the alarm that I would hear was not near as pleasant as Taylor (or any other melodic noise); it was the nails on a chalkboard type buzzing.  To this day when I hear that noise, I still get a sinking feeling in my stomach.  But, see, my father also had an addiction.  Once that horrible noise would sound each morning, I would also get a whiff of cigarette smoke.  (No, this is not a cigarette bashing post)  I understood that for my father to get moving he would turn to cigarettes and would set the snooze alarm to go off periodically.  So in between his alarms he would rely on his nicotine fix to start his day.

Now, back to me.  What is my addiction?  Cigarettes?  Thankfully, no.  But much more acceptable and accessible.  Technology.  Even as I make every attempt to not greet the day yet, I am fighting my urge to enter that password into my phone and start the “checking”.  Once I can fight it no longer, I give in, shut Taylor up and get connected.  In the dark (I still haven’t convinced myself to turn the lights on…), I first check email.  I check how my worlds made it through the night.  It’s not just 1 email account either, it is multiple email accounts so I see work stuff, Twitter stuff, Facebook, etc.  Then, because the emails were not enough, I check the Twittersphere.  Who’s up?  What did I miss while I was reading the back of my eyelids?  Did I miss any newsworthy events (because you know I very rarely actually get my news from the TV or that thing called a newspaper)?  I get the pulse of the world then I turn to Facebook.  I check to see who’s chatting about what amongst my circle of friends.  Anybody post a great picture in the last few hours?  Where do I want to chime in?

All this…without caffeine!  Don't worry, the caffeine comes later in the form of a bubbly liquid over ice.  No, I am not a coffee person (I would feel so much more sophisticated if I was), so depending on my current wellness kick it may be a Diet Coke, Mt. Dew, or on my good days – good ‘ole iced tea.  But, I wonder….is my addiction any worse than my father’s?  One could argue health dangers of smoking, but others could argue health dangers of the stress connected to technology.  Is the pull for my iPhone any less than the pull for my father’s nicotine?  An addiction may be an addiction no matter the form.  The difference is hold that it has on you.

Recently I focused my #TR30Days challenge on time with my daughter.  I called it my Mini-Me 30 Day Blessing.  I wanted to spend some focused time on her.  All too often I give what’s “left” of me (as I know many parents do).  My daughter in particular is about to start her freshman year of high school and I know how important these next 4 years are going to be for her (and me). 

What was so refreshing was that she was completely open to it.  She enjoyed me spending the time with her and showing her about being a strong, beautiful woman.  I think a lot of the success was due to the fact that I wasn’t “preaching” to her, I was showing her where to go for information, and telling her some of my “secrets”. 

Throught the process, it was interesting for me to realize that I was learning along with her.  I actually felt like doing something right as a parent with how we raised her, who we exposed her to, and what we taught her.  These are the highlights of MY learnings from her.

Our kids are tougher than we think.



She had to experience what happens when a wild animal threatens the safety of the horses and riders.  When she told me what happened, I started to get upset that she was put in that situation.  But as she continued to tell me the story she said that she understood what had to be done.  She didn’t enjoy it, had to step away to shed a few tears and collect herself, but knew it was the best thing for everyone involved.

Where did she learn this? Where did she learn to step away to collect herself so others wouldn’t get upset? AMAZING!

Our kids have some real world skills.

 I had conversations with several adults that she interacted with this summer and the one thing that kept coming up was her “people skills”.  I was told that she really knows and understands how to relate to all ages and how to influence and lead them.

“People Skills”? From a 14 year old???  WOW!

Our kids can have a positive attitude even through disappointments.

My daughter had a few disappointments this summer (broke my heart).  Things she worked so hard for and wanted so badly just were not happening for her.  While she did shed a few tears (with us) she also sought to understand.  She asked questions about what she could do differently and committed herself 100%.  This positive attitude and focused effort was recognized and in 2 of the situations she got the outcome she was hoping for. 

 Did she know that her attitude could change the outcome – doubtful?  But that didn’t matter.  She was not willing to dwell on her “bad luck” and just tried harder.

I am officially on Day 29 of my 30 Day Blessing.  I do have to admit that 30 days can go by incredibly fast!  Where did the time go?

As an update, Brianna and I are wearing our Bodybuggs.  I have gotten some rather strange looks and questions when I am in my work attire and have this “thing” on my arm that resembles a mini blood pressure cuff.  I have made the conscious decision to fully commit and wear it regardless if I was in my work out clothes or in my work clothes.  I did make the decision to remove it for a few occasions when I felt that I needed to project a “professional” image and my wardrobe was a reflection of that.  But other than that, it has had a permanent place on my left arm.  “Mini-Me” has been wearing hers as well.  I did ask her not to take it to camp – for fear of theft, damage, or loss.  That would have been a GREAT opportunity to capture all her steps and calories burned in the 100 degree weather and with all that activity.  We have decided to allow her to take it to her 2nd week of camp next week though.  I just think it will be a great learning opportunity for her to see the correlation between activity and calories burned.

I have had some opportunities to spend some 1:1 time with “Mini-Me” to discuss things like wellness, being a leader, and overcoming disappointments.  Some of these conversations have been tough.  They are often a reflection of things in my life that I still have to work on.  But they have been great moments of focused attention that I have been able to give her.

I recently attended a funeral for an Area Manager with our company.  While everybody always goes through a moment of self reflection and the typical thoughts to “stop and smell the roses”, that is not what hit me this time.  What hit me was the impact that this individual had on so many people.  He had been with our company for 28 years.  He started with us as a Manager Trainee and worked his way through many different Management positions and received numerous awards at the local and national level.  In those 28 years he had worked for, worked with, partnered with, and developed so many people.  And, it wasn’t even just him.  His sister still works for the company, and his mom worked for us for many years and those that knew her called her “Mom”.

That is almost unheard of and often even frowned upon.  However, as I worked with the team on the funeral and we continued to focus on keeping the business running (as Bill would have wanted), I was in awe of how many people he impacted.  All levels of our organization had to be notified because he had worked with so many people across the nation, the brand, and the company.  He was even on project teams with the President of the Company.  That is how influential and respected he was.  As I sat in the pew at the funeral surrounded by my team, I looked in front of me and saw a sea of people.  Then I turned around and saw even more people behind me.  What was so striking was that while I did not know the family of this person, I saw so many people that I recognized – because they were a part of our Company.

It was apparent that so many of us had been influenced by him over the years and that he was thought of more than a co-worker.  He really was thought of as a friend.  His team, our company, really was a part of his family.

How many of our corporate cultures can have stories like that of Bill?  How many companies have watched and helped their employees grow for 5, 10, 15, 20, 28 years?  How many employees would be loyal to a team – much less a logo for that long?  This was a man that truly left a legacy.  He left 1 for his partner, his 2 beautiful children, his sister, his mom, and then he also left a legacy for his team, his area of influence, our region, and our company.

The first week of my #TR30Days Blessing was all about learning and setting ourselves up for success.  I am continuing to look for ways to help my daughter and I focus on healthy life long habits versus the quick fixes that we all look for while getting to spend quality and quantity time with my Mini-Me.  As a recap for Week 1, we:

·         Went public here, on twitter, and thanks to my father…on Facebook.

·         Got buy in from my spouse and daughter

·         Purchased BodyBuggs to become more aware of habits and activity.

·         Went to 24 Hour Fitness to register BodyBuggs and go over the program.

·         Began experimenting with BodyBuggs and entering data into the website.

·         Had Mini-Me do some research for new recipes.

I just returned from spending a week with four 14 year old Girl Scouts and 2 other Girl Scout Moms.  Can you imagine all that estrogen in 1 place?  And can you believe that we all made it out alive?  I have to say that even though I was excited to have the time off work and spend some quality time with my daughter, I was still nervous about all those hormones fighting their way out.  I am pleased (and relieved) to say that not only did we survive the hormone gnashing; we actually enjoyed our time together.  Because of that focused time with my “Mini-Me”, I realized that just as a marriage or a friendship needs nurturing, so does a parent and child relationship – more than just homework time and me being the taxi driver! 

  I am very proud of the relationship that I have currently with my daughter, but I know that it could be enhanced and I can better prepare her for her future by being intentional about some nuggets of wisdom and experiences that I can share with her.  And THAT is how I came up with my next #TR30Days list.

Create 2 meals a week with “Mini-Me” to build upon her cooking skills and healthy nutrition knowledge

Go shopping for the “Mini-Me” meals with her to build upon her shopping and food selection skills

Partner with her to become aware of healthy eating habits

Partner with her to add physical activity to our week

Have 2 “Girls’ Night Out” to have some focused girlie time

In my last post I reflected on all the ideas I have been exposed to, the organizations and people I have met, the speakers I have had the pleasure to listen to, and action I have taken because of my relationship with People Report.  I even likened it to “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”. 

I wrote specifically about the many ideas and principals last time.  This time it is about the organizations and people that I have met.

·         People Report – Of course I HAVE to mention People Report.  This amazing organization knows how to bring like minded people together – even competitors, and provide a forum for sharing data, ideas, best practices, and networking.  I would be remiss if I did not specifically mention Joni Doolin and Melissa Papaleo.  These ladies are nothing less than Rock Stars.  Not only do they know their stuff, the QSR Industry, and influencers.  But more importantly they are advocates of doing the right thing and those that have the passion and desire to achieve it.

·         Talent Revolution – This is the group that started my love affair with social media.  The presented it in a way that it opened up a new dimension to network, learn, and share ideas.  Oh, and they did it in a way that you didn't feel like that last person to the party.  Amanda, Susan, Bill, Chris, Kami…I so appreciate each of you.  You all have made a HUGE contribution to who and where I am today.

·         Leigh Caraccioli – Talent, talent, and talent.  There is so much talent bundled into this Blondie!  She has a way to make you feel at ease without you realizing what she is doing.  She sees the spirit of her subject each and every time.  And…she embraces her blondness and shares it with the Twittersphere.

·         ItStartsWith.Us – Nate St. Pierre is a genuine as they come.  Who quits their job to help others that are struggling? Oh, yeah, that would be Nate.  He sees no boundaries or limits as to who his community can help and how they can help.  I am humbled by him.

·         Sarah Atkinson – This Gal is what passion is all about.  Regardless if it is passion for social media (FohBoh), San Francisco Giants, or mimosas…she is your Gal.  That passion is backed with a wealth of knowledge and a huge heart!

·         Kacy Oden – Another lady that just gets it.  She connects people with her heart.  She appreciates all that is around her and loves to share it with others. AWESOME!

·         Jill McFarland – This wicked cool chick knows her stuff and is not afraid to take on a challenge.  She knows the industry and who the influencers are.

·         Brianna Foulds – If you ever need a smile or a good pair of shoes – she is the girl to go to.  She can brighten any room, conversation, or wardrobe.  She is an amazing recruiter!

·         Jessica Miller-Merrill – Jessica (blogging4jobs) is just an inspiration for anybody wanting to be in social media professionally.  I want to be her when I grow up!

The list could go on and on, and if I have left you out, it is simply due to space and word count (J).  But I thank each of you and the influence you have made on me and the impact you have made on my heart.

With the annual People Report Summer Camp (#PRSCamp) event quickly approaching, I have been thinking about the impact that People Report has had on me in the last couple of years.  It really is remarkable all the ideas I have been exposed to, the organizations and people I have met, the speakers I have had the pleasure to listen to, and action I have taken because of this connection.  It’s almost like a game of “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”.

There are MANY ideas that I have been exposed to.  Not surprisingly, many of them are related to technology.                                                                   

·         Social Media – I was on Facebook, but that was it.  I am now on Twitter, LinkedIn, WordPress, Tumblr, and individual communities like FohBoh, Talent Revolution, and Love Drop.  And I am more than just a “crock-pot” sitter, I engage and interact and have had relationships created and strengthened through SM.  Connect with me!

·         Personal Branding – I had no idea this was even something I needed to consider.  I have spent a considerable amount of time thinking about what this meant to me and how to embrace and execute it.

·         Community Service – I have been exposed to some great organizations and ideas on how to incorporate this into our workplace and into our hearts.  “Mixing Money and Meaning” comes to mind.

·         Networking – I no longer have the fear of this!

·         Personal Development – It really isn’t a cliché.  It is a must and I own it!

Even if you already participate and even excel in these areas, #PRSCamp is a great way to further your reach and share best practices with like minded folks.  Oh...and did I say you can wear flip flops?