Opportunities (Win-Win)

It's a Win-Win

Today's post is a hail Mary post~ I hope I'm using that appropriately. This post was initially titled "Back in the Saddle...Giddyup". Don't ask. Oh, all right~ The "Giddyup" was a right-now addition. Point is, this was going to be a very uninspiring, dry post about finding things to do to keep busy when you have seemly exhausted your list of things to do [based on your daily schedule, of course].

Let's talk about that for a minute.

I have often found myself inspired by myself recently. You truly don't know what you're capable of until you try. You can only imagine, and sometimes imagination doesn't do you justice [Although that could fall on either side of the spectrum; positively or negatively].

Let me first say, "You're awesome". I'm not joking around here.

Everyday, you get up, go to work [in some capacity or the other] and fill up 8 hours. 8 whole hours. That's about 4 movies. You do things and earn a living, somehow. If you were like me a couple of years ago, you have a job where you are answering law suits literally every second for 8 hours because people love to sue other people. This is America. As a result, you can fill up your day without even trying. Good on you!

If you're like me now, you have a set schedule and hours to fill up with work, but you have to create the work [Yes, I've said that a lot on previous posts, lol (Okay, so just my 2 previous posts, but a lot still. Take a look if you haven't yet)] [Still shocking to me though] [Still growing, obviously].

I came in today, with a very small list of things to do. I said to myself "well, you're gonna be done in a jiff. Bummer. What are you gonna do to fill up the time in a way that assists in your internship goal? [true story, trust me]". I started with 4 lines of things to do [With the first item completed in a matter of minutes] and ended up with a whole page of reflective notes and completed items. How did that happen? Might seem obvious to you pros, but bear with me.

I created more work for myself. "Duhhhh" you think. Seriously, that is an achievement. How? I spent the time rereading previous work, editing and improving on it in ways that I did not expect to.

Tip: If you've run out of things to do, look at what you've done before and put yourself in the audience's shoes.

Seems pretty obvious, uh? You should also look at what you have planned for the next day [If you have nothing planned, plan something]. Ask yourself, "How can I help tomorrow's me?" [No, you'll still have a lot to do because you'll do the same thing tomorrow]. Finally, do the thing you've been avoiding. That thing that you keep putting off far in the future, but that you have to do eventually.

That part [doing the thing you've been avoiding] is really important. The major part of my project isn't going to start until the end of the month, and it seems too hard. Today, I spent time making myself break it down into little bits, and tackled all the things I didn't want to do. You can do it too.

If you skipped all that reading ^, here's what you need to remember;

• You're awesome

• Do today what you can do tomorrow

• Break the giant into little bits

• Plan ahead every single day

• Look at what you've done before and ask, "How can I make it better?"

Ok, back to the Opportunities spiel [If I haven't yet forgotten what I wanted to write] [Yikes I kinda did].

Ok.

Tip then: if something seems exciting, it can fuel less exciting things, but write that exciting thing first. Maybe. Let' see how the rest turns out and you can decide which to write first.

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Opportunities

Ok. So there I was, work day finished, blog post abandoned at the title stage. Goal to write a post once a week fading fast. I walk outside to let a co-worker know that I was done for the day [Ok, as an intern, we're not really the same, but...]. She's there standing with a woman I've never met before. She goes, "have you met ..." to me. At my "no" face she introduces me to the lady and tells her about what I'm working on. Meanwhile, in my head... "I wonder why everyone here always introduces what I do when they introduce me".

Tip: Always tell people what you do when you introduce yourself. Seems obvious, but I don;t always [or ever] do that. [Still growing, obviously]

The woman makes an excited face and we proceed to connect in a romantic movie worthy scene titled "You truly get me" [except not romantic]. She is truly my work soulmate. Fast forward, as a result, she's giving me an opportunity to help her and also help my work project.

Don't laugh. I need the work. She's giving me a truly appreciated [by me] chance to work on the hard part of my major project on a smaller scale. If you've ever felt trepidation at the responsibility of a major work project, you can probably appreciate getting to work on a small scale version of it in a no judgement-I-really-need-your-help way.

When her project is done, I will have tackled what I considered to be the toughest part of the project overall, and created content for the major project overall.

Win-Win~