This week I have felt way behind and unable to catch up. It would seem since Boeing is over with, things should be easier. There should have less calling for my attention, but it hasn’t been so. There are several reasons for this feeling disorganization.
Last week, I was focused on making sure that I was ready to Leave Boeing. Needing to make sure I had the technology, files, links, people names and emails that I would need post-Boeing, I focused on this most of the week. Searching only for jobs on Monday. This week I’m having to go back and include searching for last weeks opportunities which is requiring more time.
With my change in employment, I had to re-input my resume and go through all the old Boeing postings on the outside. I have also been been setting up new automated email messages to tell me when new jobs are posted. I have been trying to set these up at the various companies that I’m looking at. I haven’t used these successfully before this, but I think these can be helpful if I stay on top of of my email.
And I am still trying to get a household routine in place minimizes that amount of time spent, but lives up to standards. I don’t think I have standards in this area; if left to my own at home, I’m a slob. What I do have is the emblazoned image that my wife has set for me over the years. She has been an excellent role model; it is a high standard, but one that I will strive for. Learning what this standard takes and then getting it into a routine that I don’t have to think about will take some time.
I have also been trying to increase my exercise which I have been pretty irregular about over the last year. This week I have been doing a lot of walking: 1hr+ Friday, .5hr Saturday, 1hr+ Sunday. Nothing on Monday. Exercise on Tuesday consisted of weight lifting in the morning and tennis lessons at night. Then today I did about 50 minutes of aerobic exercise in two sessions. I’m trying to average well over 30 minutes of aerobic exercise per day and lift weights every third day. I’m learning how to Organizing my day, so that I make this time priority in my day. And again my goal is to get it so I don’t have to think about it.
The reason it is important to get this into a tight routine is because when I have to take the time to think about about going and exercising or doing the vacuuming all of the sudden doubts creep into the picture like: maybe I should do that later, wouldn’t be ok to just not vacuum this time, I’ll spend extra time next time or my all time favorite, I just don’t feel like it now. If I can avoid these decision points, then I have a chance of building it into a learned behavior before I even realize it.
In addition to the previous items adding to my feeling of disorganization is that I am also still trying to get my new computer set up. Just when I think I have everything just right, I discover something else that I hadn’t thought about and go back into set up mode. I am also learning Windows 7 and the open office suite. I have been accessing help files many times a day, learning how to do something that was second nature in MS Office.
Windows 7 is great; much better than XP or Vista. The best feature is the search in the start menu. Just type in what you are looking for and almost instantly a list of everything on disk meeting your search criteria appears. This is fantastic and saves tons of time not looking for files and messages.
This feeling of disorganization wells up in my as nervousness, stress and a bit of frustration. I feel that I am not accomplishing enough, and not getting done what needs to be done. I have to relax a bit and give myself time to learn. I am making progress, and I am accomplishing quite a bit. I need to learn to celebrate the little accomplishments like: having a successful day completed the plan I had laid out; accomplishing all the job searching that I had planned for the day, or completing the application.
Over the last few days, I have been fretting over changing the blog content to include the other things that I’m taking on now, specifically I’m looking at: the career transition, being a stay at home dad, improving my health through exercise and weight lose, remodeling my basement, and maturing an idea for a non-profit organization.
To this point, this blog has been successful in helping me understand and make sense out of what I was going through. And recording my learning is helping me avoid making the same mistakes over and over again. It has also played an important role in my life by enabling the use of the situation to open avenues of self discovery.
For others, I think this blog has been helpful in understanding others shared some of the same feelings and that we didn’t be so alone in this. We didn’t have to feel completely stigmatized by receiving the warn. It has also played a role in recording and disseminating useful information that was being learned not just by myself, but by the network of people going through the warn notice and their network of friends and family that were paying attention and helping out.
I have been fretting about how to broaden the content which I know will be helpful to myself, while continuing to make it helpful and relevant to others. And I have been fretting over where to draw the boundaries on what to share and what to keep private.
This is especially the case as I start to share information about my struggle to get healthier. At the same time we are faced with an epidemic of obesity in our nation and we are not making the changes necessary to overcome this.
My next post will focus a bit more in this area and cover some of the thoughts I have about how to go about it.
Yesterday, I applied for two more jobs and I have had two interesting information interviews. These have been interviews where a position isn’t open, but we have been in discussion about what could be done. Both of these interview were due to friends referrals.
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