Day 437 – Part One

I am going to save most of the days blog for this afternoon. I’m going to share how this interview goes.

Getting a job is a lot like courting a big client, if you are doing it right. There is a lot to learn about them. For both you need to know about the company, it’s history and it’s purpose. It is important to find how the product you are offering fits into this company.

This is just another example of how everyone is in sales. You are always selling something even if it is yourself.

I will sit down this afternoon and tell you if I deserve coffee or not because, coffee is for closers.

Day 436 – Doers and joiners

One of the guys I work with is a really nice guy. He has made me notice something interesting.

When I first got to this warehouse, to say it was a mess would be putting it lightly. It was honestly overwhelming. There had been no one in the warehouse full time in over 3 months and it had become the dumping ground for the entire company. If we needed a pallet down off the rack, you not only had to clear out the floor in front of the bay, you have to clear a path to that part of the warehouse. It could take an hour to just get one pallet.

My partner had been there for 3 months before I started and had been swamped by just the daily requirements of the job and had little time to get the warehouse in shape. By adding a second person we were able to get on top of it pretty fast.

I just came in and started to work. I separated scrap from consumables and threw away a lot of stuff. Probably more than I should have but honestly no one noticed. Once I started to work and get things done, my partner joined in.

He was very content with staying in the office and working on the paperwork and requisition forms. Of course that needed to be done to get the inventory under control but, I could not deal with the chaos in the warehouse. We made quick work of it actually. It took about 6 weeks but we got it dialed in.

Now I am the kind of guy that likes to stay busy. Especially at a job, it makes the day go by faster. I am always finding things do do even if it is sweeping the floor or taking out the garbage. My partner always seems to join me after I have started something. He is a joiner.

It is just a simple observation really. Not a put down in any way, nor is it my way of trying to say how awesome I am. Some people are doers and others are joiners. Some people are leaders and others are followers. It is part of their DNA and not reserved for politics or life choices. It is as small as sweeping a warehouse floor. Both are necessary for the leader cannot lead without followers and followers will have no one to follow without leaders. Neither one is more important than the other, for the floor still needs to be swept and it while it takes the doer to initiate. It takes the joiner to finish.

Seriously have you ever tried to hold a dustpan and sweep into it on your own? It is much more efficient with another.

Day 435 – Cup of coffee and notes all over my desk by 5:30am

I love getting up in the mornings when I have an agenda.

Getting up to just get up is not my favorite. I mean why not just stay in bed if you are not going to get anything accomplished right?

So as you all know I made the decision to go back to work a few months ago. I took a job just to pay the bills but it has had a side effect I had not anticipated. A job is more than just a paycheck no matter how much you may try to tell yourself.

The job will affect your attitude for the positive of the negative. If you enjoy the job and the people you will be happy. The job can have the same effect in a negative way.

Since I am going to have a job I want to land on the positive side of things. I want to be able to have a job that I enjoy with people that challenge me to be better. I do not want to be a crab trapped in a pot.

I got called for a second interview with a large company yesterday and I have been up since early this morning preparing for it. Taking notes and researching the company. I am pretty excited about it actually. It will be a nice change from the first job I took out of necessity to get some things caught up.

So, yeah I have been pretty productive since 5am this morning. Bed made as always first thing and even got a load of laundry going. Now it is time to get the rest of the day going.

Be well and smile at everyone! It is a good day if you decide it is.

Day 434 – In need of a real recharge.

I am ready for a good recharging.

I am thinking a nice quick weekend get away. A place with no phone reception and no internet. A place where I can seriously relax for a time.

It seems so hard to actually relax these days doesn’t it? Even when we are home and doing nothing we are busy. We fill our time with stuff. It seems like the only logical answer is to remove all of the stuff. I find myself checking email during commercial breaks, scrolling through Facebook or thinking about something I need to get done. Time to unplug!

I imagine sitting in a lounger somewhere far away with no technology. Reading, walking and napping. Yeah that sounds good. Of course the imagery comes of doing this on a beach and the lounger being in the gentle lapping waves on the shore. Yes, that would be nice but I am sure there is something closer than Mexico. Maybe San Juan Island or some little beach town on the coast. Of course I am not opposed to somewhere sunny like a little weekend rental on the beach in California.

Wherever it is I think it needs to happen soon and I plan on leaving my cell phone at home. Wait, I better write down a few numbers in case I actually need to call someone! Honestly I think the only two numbers I know are Amy’s and mine!

Day 433 – The dreaded Monday small talk.

It is Monday morning. One thing I can count on every Monday is being asked, “How was your weekend?”

That is one of those non creative conversation fillers people use when they are engaged with someone they only know as an acquaintance. Honestly, I would rather you talk about the weather.

Honestly I get this from people I work with. I am polite and respond with a canned answer because, the real one one would not make sense to them and I really do not care to share my personal life with the negative, self-serving narcissists I work with.

I tell them that it was great and I just hung out and relaxed. Their head may explode if I told them the truth.

Saturday I got up at 630 to go hang out at a Men’s retreat where I acted as Pete Carroll in a skit. I met my wife for lunch and then went home to work on taxes for one of my 3 businesses. I went to bed at 800 on Saturday night and got up at 430 (330 actually, damn daylight savings!) and went to the warehouse where I spent 4 hours working on my marijuana garden. Came home showered and went to church. When I got home and after breakfast, I finished my to do list. I drafted a Mission and Vision for my MasterMind group and also created Rules and a meeting agenda. I uploaded my Profit and loss to my tax accountant and business partners before I cleaned the garage and washed my car. Amy and I had pizza on the couch catching up on one of our favorite shows and then I had to make a patient delivery before I went to bed at 830.

What did you do?

Uhhhhhh I went to party on Saturday and got *&*^%’d up man.

Aaaaaallrighty then. How about this sunshine huh?

Day 430 – Zen sounds nice but, is it a real thing?

At 45 I still have a temper. I hold on to a lot of stuff and really have never learned to release it. At times actually, I am quite the ass.

At any given time the pent up anger and frustration that I hold on to can overflow and spill out. It always seems to happen at the worst time and usually over something very stupid. I mean was the fact that the guy did not use a blinker cause for a nuclear storm? Do I feel any better after yelling like an idiot in my car where he cannot even hear me? No.

I have triggers too. For instance whenever I see my neighbor my blood begins to boil. I go off on some personal rant about an indecent that happened well over a year ago and is just dumb. It is like a scab more than a scar and it can be scraped away pretty easily.

Amy says that I need to find my Zen. I need to find a way to forgive and let go of things but, I struggle. How do I let things go and not feel like a doormat? How do I know that I have spoken my mind completely and then be done with it? How do I really let it go.

I feel really stupid when I have one of these episodes. Afterwards I am embarrassed but, get defensive because I am ashamed and it keeps going. I will grandstand and walk out of the room or go for a walk all the while feeding this anger instead of releasing it.

I have heard of people going to the gym or running or painting or whatever as a way to release things but, that just does not make any sense to me. Letting go is a concept in my mind at best but, I want to figure this out. I am too old to be having tantrums.

People talk about anger and frustration like it is a sour piece of candy. It is uncomfortable for a while and then its just gone? Where does it go? Are my feelings of frustration and anger soluble in some way? Are they just suppose to fade away? I can tell myself they are gone but, they are not. They will be back like an unwanted house guest.

I guess it just comes to letting go. While the logical side of my brain gets and understands that, emotionally I don’t. For me it is like looking at a rubix cube and everyone is telling me that to solve it all I have to do is get the same colors on the same sides.

I want to find zen, be less angry and let things go but, I just do not understand how.

Day 429 – It is okay to think differently.

People often tell me that they just do not understand how I do what I do.

How do you just make something and go after it? Most people are hindered by fear  and have just decided that anything new is just not worth it. Even those who have ideas and want to do something are usually still frozen with fear even though they call it preparedness. I see it all of the time. People who are getting ready to get ready.

I have often wondered about this type of fear and I have developed a theory.

When we are children we learn by doing things. Everything is new to us and we just do. Most of what we did as kids is on the creative side of the fence. Creativity is simply thinking of something that has a type of value. The value may not be currency but, experience or fun. We draw on the sidewalk, we dance, we build things. Our youth is proportionally where we experience the greatest amount of growth in our lives.

As we get older we enter into and education system that was created in the age of enlightenment during the industrial revolution. We were told that if you went to school did well and went to college you would get a job. We were forced into a box. We were taught things that have been determined by someone else to be important. Math, Science, Humanities, and grammar are all worthy subjects but are so linear in the way they make us think. These subjects ask questions that have one answer. You are either right or you are wrong.

The current system basically separates people into two academic places. Educated and not educated. The lie is that many people in the “not” educated group feel they are not intelligent because they do not know the difference between affect and effect, what a noble gas is or how to solve linear equations. The fact is that intelligence is just measured based on an idea of education and not creativity.

This feeds into the fear that has been growing in them since they were a small child fearing that they would get the answer wrong and be told that they are dumb. We are stifled from doing the things we really want to do because we are told they are frivolous. Don’t play the guitar you will never be in a band. Don’t waste your time painting you will never be an artist. That is really no different than saying don’t waste your time studying atmospheric pressure, you will never be an astronaut.

Fear is learned and it is not based on anything real only perception. If you are afraid to fail you will never do anything original.

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.

Friedrich Nietzsche

 

 

Day 428 – Another Sullivan boy on the way!

Well the news of the day is of course news of our first grandson.

This summer we will be welcoming into the world Andrew James Sullivan II. Yesterday the entire family was waiting for the news. Was it a boy or a girl? I was trying to play it cool but I was just as bad as everyone else. I think we all knew it was going to be a boy but, a bit scared that it may be a girl. What the hell do we do with girls!?

Milestones in my life seem to be coming faster and faster these days. Kids moving out, last one graduating soon and a grandson are signs of my age. When it comes to the grandkid thing I have been living on borrowed time for quite some time. I made my mom a grandmother before she was 40. So its fine at 45 for me.

I hope to be an awesome grandpa and spoil this little guy. I will give him lots of sugar and always say yes! Just kidding Emily. I do promise to give him lots of love and hugs!

Day 427 – Suddenly, out of the blue . . .

Isn’t life great?

You just never know what is coming next. I am 45 years old, living my life and out of the blue I get a call from the past. Like 35 years in the past.

Okay before I go on I cannot believe that I can actually say, “35 years ago”. I am old! lol.

My phone rings and it is a Nevada number. My mind goes right into Moonshine mode. I always hope these calls to be a new distributor or customer. It came from Nevada and I believe they consume a lot of booze in Nevada so I picked up.

The man on the other end of the phone sounded surprised that I answered and was taken a bit off guard. It was clear that he was not expecting me to answer and stumbled through a couple questions after apologizing for getting personal. After a few of his questions I remembered this man from my childhood.

I was speaking to a man I used to call Uncle. The man that called me out of the blue was the brother of my mother’s second husband Larry. We talked for about 40 minutes sharing stories of our lives and families since the last time I had seen him somewhere around 1981. I learned that my step dad had passed away in 2006. I was sad to hear it but, like my mom, I just had a feeling he had been gone for a while.

I have wondered about him from time to time over the years. I had not seen or heard from him since I was in the 9th grade. It is nice to have closure on that.

I always remembered Uncle Alan as being the tall skinny guy that played guitar and let me use the electric stapler at his printing gig. He shared stories with me about moving to Guam to fix a newspaper printing press for two years then taking a bicycle ride across Australia. He is now a retired trucker living in Nevada and it sounds like he has had a pretty adventurous life. I must admit his sleuthing skills are not bad either. He found us with completely different last names and only a few clues from his faded memory.

Like I said, life is pretty cool. You never know what is going to happen next. Hey maybe today I will get that call from the big Nevada distributor?

Day 426 – Feeling pumped this Monday morning.

What a weekend!

Saturday was date day with the wife. We peeled ourselves away from Season 3 of House of Cards long enough to go see a movie and go out to dinner. We did come home and watch another episode of course.

Yesterday was all about the Mastermind group. I was awake at 545 in the morning because I just could not sleep. I was making notes and thinking about what I wanted to accomplish even before church. I am convinced after last night that I have the right group of people at that table. I am beyond excited to see where we all go together in the future.

I feel like this was one of the most relaxing weekends I have had in quite some time. It was busy but not too busy. Everything I needed to accomplish I did and I got to spend an amazing day with Amy.

Now I sit at my desk and I can hear the birds starting to chirp and I look forward to the week. I have a list of things I need to get accomplished and of course there is that whole job thing.

I feel very focused right now. Things are moving forward and positively on all fronts. I am rooting out the weeds and getting down to the brightest irons in the fire. I have assembled a kick butt Mastermind group and I feel like there is nothing that can stop me.