I’m in a routine funk, and I need to change it up.

For the past two weeks, life has just passed by me through actions of routine.  I drive to work without much thought, tuning out traffic completely and in a daze for most of the hour commute – it’s almost as if my car was on cruise control all the way to work.

At work, I’m engaged and I get things done, but my ability to think creatively has hit a wall.   I’m not as productive as I would like to be, I’m not as focused as I usually am, nor am I pushing for the awesomeness that I know I am.

Post work, my schedule is my schedule:

• Monday/Tuesday – Gym
• Wednesday/Thursday – Vball
• Friday-  Gym (sometimes) then chill
• Saturday – Vball clinic/chill at night
• Sunday – Fam jam lunch/ do nothing

WHAT THE F IS WRONG WITH ME?!!

Time to look for some inspiration…

Check back.

- C

Week 4 of Project Me and I’m slowly integrating these proposed changes into my daily grind.  However, the one I’m struggling with the most is reading the news on a regular basis.  On the days I take the TTC down to the office it’s easy for me to pick up the Metro and get caught up with the rest of the world, but other than that… it’s not working so well. :| As for budget me green… let’s just say I’m tracking my expenses but it’s looking a lot more red than green! ha ha

Today at work, my Director gave me advice about how successful business women make it to the top, referencing an article she had read over the weekend. Two things stuck in my head:  Successful business women keep it short and to the point (or in other words, talk like men) and secondly, they do not take things personally and get emotional about it.  As a result, this inspired me to think about how I deal with situations at work and reflect upon my style of communication and management of stress and conflict.  Here goes!

Point # 1 – Straight to the point.

In all aspects of my life I’m pretty good with being honest, open and to the point.  I say things as they come and I filter accordingly, depending on who I am speaking with, how well I know you, and whether or not the recipient is used to my communication style.  Of course there are exceptions of when this is not true, for example, a) talking in circles because I am nervous and can’t for the life of me wrap it out and/or b) I just met you and I’m not going to go right into it.  Some refer to this as “the fluff” … i.e. “Hope things are well/weekend was good/etc.”, but I do believe that (at least from me) it comes from a genuine place and that it’s respectful to ask someone how they are doing.

With that being said, there are two things that I could use some work on: confrontation and feedback. Sometimes in the workplace you may have experienced blame or pointing fingers.  The best thing you can do is stay positive and then take the  CYA = Cover Your A$$ approach (an acronym my coworker had used which I had no idea about until today) by always making it a habit to save emails that you think may be important later.

The other part that I’m working on is feedback, both upwards and with peers.  I take feedback very well but giving negative feedback is another story because you need to be constructive and choose the words you use carefully. With practice comes a developed skill, so who wants some feedback?! lol

Point #2 – Control those emotions!

Not surprisingly, I’m better at this at work than I am in my personal life.  When it comes down to a professional setting, I have learned the art of controlling my emotions over the years, whether it be anger, stress, and/or disappointment.  It’s hard not to let your emotions rip when someone has a bad day and decides you’re their target for the day or when you make a mistake and get called out on it… BUT sometimes you have to just suck it up.  My best advice thus far is to stay positive in all situations and find a solution rather than focus on the problem.  It’s not worth b!tching about it for more than 5 minutes.  Instead get yourself in a get sh!t done mode and take care of the problem right away – you’ll be surprised at the people you impress when you’re able to make problems disappear.

Of course, I haven’t mastered this skill yet but it’s something that I will continue to do and improve on.  Most of the time my emotions are happy anyways, and the only disadvantage of that is being too social and not getting any work done! :P ha ha (just kidding…)

Happy March!
-C

When I first thought of this concept of daily improvement, I was optimistic to think that I could – in the midst of my reality – inflict a ‘new’ tidbit of change every day.  I was absolutely wrong.  And after only two weeks of declaring this commitment to the www dot, I have already failed.  It’s not that I haven’t been working on myself, but making changes every day is far more challenging than I had imagined.  I’ve also realized that it’s not possible for me to add new things into my life or change old ways without giving myself time to absorb and figure out how it could work in my life versus it being a burden.

Lesson Learned: Don’t Expect Change Instantly.

Over the weekend, I realized that I can’t expect change to happen instantly and these daily ‘challenges’ for self improvement came with the expectation that I would, by the end of the year have found 365 things that I promised to make better.  Why didn’t anyone tell me it’s not realistic? Thankfully, my BFF came back from audit hell to suggest that I could take these challenges a week at a time.

Project Me was supposed to be a fun process for me to grow personally and professionally.  It’s a project that pushes me to think about and reflect about the person I am now, who I want to be in the future, the relationships I have and all else that is important in my life.  How do I become a better version of me in one year’s time?

A Fresh Start:  Budget Me Green

What I started 2 weeks ago hasn’t been left behind, in fact we can call it a head start in the race for me to become a better person.  Swear Jar count is now at $47. … if anyone was curious. #lesigh

My challenge for the week is to stay on top of my budget and track every penny that I make and spend.  I started the year with a 2011 Budget excel sheet all organized with pretty colours and categories,  and although I have been sticking within my budget, I can’t be 100% sure until I put it all on paper right? Right. I’m going for the green baby, but not in Q1!

Happy Savings!

- C

SIGH. I’ve already missed two days as my friend John pointed out… clearly I’m not ready to commit to such a program, or well at least writing about it!

Day 4 – Find an extra productive hour each day (or maybe just the weekdays).

Day 5 – Read the news.

Day 6 – Enjoy some me time.

The weekend  seems to always include a lazy day for me and although I very much enjoy sleeping in until the afternoon on weekends, I find that it will also be important for me to find that extra hour to be productive each day (Monday to Friday at least.)  With that extra hour either at work or in the morning, I would be able to do so much!  Waking up  earlier will allow me to fully enjoy breakfast or being more productive at work will mean that I get off at 5pm!

Something I’ve also been doing is trying to keep up with the news.  Key word here being try. It’s embarrassing when I feel like I don’t know what important things are happening around the world.  If I fit 30min into my day to reading the news, it’s a productive way to learn about the world.  2 birds with 1 stone? Yes!

Today’s commitment was about enjoying me time, which I’ve talked about in the past. I think this makes me a better person because it allows me to get to know myself better and just be comfortable in my own presence.  It lets be reflect about the week, the things that are important, my goals and most of all, just relax.  As an extrovert, I always find it amazing what you can learn about yourself, just by being alone.

Swear Jar Update (re: Day 3): We’re at $23.  Thank you MIAMI Heat for losing today’s game against Boston.  #lesigh.

- C

@#$%! -ing for Charity

<photo courtesy of http://pineapplelicious.deviantart.com>

It’s true, my name is Cheryl Ho and I have a swearing problem.

I really don’t mean to be offensive, rude or inappropriate… but there’s just something so liberating about using the F-word.  lol  It’s so versatile.  It can be used as a verb, noun and adjective, not to mention that it can be paired with oh so many emotions too! I won’t say that I’ll never swear again cause that’s just crazy, but it can certainly be minimized.  There’s really only one place and time that I can think of for swearing haha but I’ll leave that to your own imagination. (;

I will agree that substitutes (like “F” or “B”) for these words are probably not much better than the swear words itself but at least it sounds better and less vulgar.  The most challenging part of this is playing sports because we all know, it’s impossible to control my emotions during a competitive game of volleyball!

For the next 30 days: I will donate $1 per full swear word I use to charity.  Sounds easy enough? And wow, there’s even an iPhone App called ‘iSwear” that helps you keep track!

-C