New beginnings
With the first of the year, as usual we are overwhelmed with messages of new beginnings, fresh starts, and clean slates. (And, on a side note, I once again am prompted to ask – what exactly would constitute an old beginning? But, I digress…)
Employing the adage, “if you can’t beat them, join them” I, too, am throwing my thoughts into the mix, although, hopefully with less redundancy. As some have probably heard, we spent the weeks between the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays moving into a new office space. Not just new to us, but also including a pretty hefty remodel. After a slightly stressful transition period, I’m happy to report that I haven’t heard the hum of an air compressor, experienced a power outage, or been trapped in a conversation with painters for almost two weeks now. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to talk to them. I just ran out of intelligent comments regarding brush stroke techniques despite my appreciation of their enthusiasm for the topic.
So here I sit at my new desk completing all the normal tasks of my job and the only unpacking I’ve done includes my computer, phone, stapler, planner, notebook, beloved calculator, and two pens. That’s it. Turns out that is all I really need. And, honestly, there aren’t even staples in the stapler so really it should be reclassified as a paperweight holding down the invisible stack of documents on my desk. The poor trees reincarnated as paperwork and file folders gave their life in vain as everything that I have packed away is also saved on our network drives and, might I add, much more accessible in that form. Sincere apologies to my new set of highlighters and the budget used to purchase them. Apparently, I will never be a consistent color-coder. And while I’ve enjoyed the various tchotchkes commemorating the vacation spots of my co-workers, it appears they are also not essential tools when crossing things off my to-do list.
Is this a shocking discovery? Not at all. I can clearly remember thinking to myself that I could/should probably get rid of most of these things when I packed them. And while I’m confessing, I even knew when I petitioned for that set of highlighters that the chances of me actually using them were slim. The lesson here is that I wasn’t informed enough to take the step of decisively saying yay or nay to any of these items until I functioned with or without them. You might even say (drum roll please) that I needed to research it first. Informed decisions are the easiest to make.
While I’m not advocating moving every year to facilitate your new beginning, I am suggesting that a closer look at the essential vs. unessential, practical vs. unpractical, yay vs. nay, might give you the confidence you need to take action. So, if this is the year you are vowing to embrace those goals that always seem to be slightly out of reach- those last five pounds, that lingering credit card debt, or messy closet- do your homework first.
You might just get a side benefit out of it. Finally write blog entry? Cross that one off the list.
Oh, and for anyone wondering, namely those of you who gave them to me, no, I’m not throwing away my collection of vacation themed magnets, key chains, and figurines.
Not all worth can be judged on functionality. Plus, they are pretty.< ><-->