Thoughts on Change
What are your thoughts on change? I may not have told you yet, but I’ve enrolled in an online writing seminar to move my lovely blog to the next level. You’re seeing some changes to how I’m presenting information. You’re also seeing how the blog layout is changing. I can’t wait for you to see everything.
Interestingly enough, and I never thought I’d be happy to say this again, but I’ve been having “homework” from this seminar. You just saw my post on how to pick a crock pot right? It’s HERE if you’d like to see it. Well this is also one of my homework pieces. Today I need to share with you a “failure”.
Failure is Not Acceptable
How do you go about talking about failure? Do you gloss it over to make it less bitter? Or do you hit it head on – no hold barred, like ripping a band aid off? I personally hit it head on. I figure there’s no use pussy footing around. It’s not going to help me solve the problem or make it any less horrible to “gloss it over”.
For me this isn’t so much of a real “failure” as one that was very much in my head. This would be another reason to hit it head on and not gloss over it. For me getting over the closure of our successful business has to some extent felt like a failure. Our business wasn’t a failure. I personally feel like one because I can’t make it, the business, work in a way that is productive for both my husband and I.
I am Not a Failure
By all accounts our business was a raving success. So I can see you now, eyebrows knit, pondering what exactly am I talking about? Failure? Doesn’t seem possible. Well to put it bluntly, I’m very much a TYPE A personality. I’m not wired to quit. Not in my programming. So for me to admit that we needed to make a change, to better our personal lives and to better our physical health, was hard. It felt like a failure.
I am also not one to take change easily. I hate it. Hate it. Very much hate it. Especially BIG, LIFE, CHANGES. Ugh – there is nothing I dislike more than big change. So once again I was faced with a personal, but strictly in my head feeling of failure.
However once I’d given it a month or two to sink in I realized that change is good. Change is needed to prevent stagnation. Change is needed to keep you on your toes and working towards a greater goal, not just being a cog on a wheel making the machine move. So while I might not have liked the start of this transition, and continue to have periodic moments of self-doubt at my self-imposed career change – deep down I know this was for the best.
It’s a Success – More Thoughts on Change
How do I know this you ask? Well for one we are actually having time off, as a family, in a regular kind of way. For the first time since I met my husband in the mid 90’s he has nights & weekends off. Honest – when you’re a chef in a restaurant you work evenings, and if you own a catering company kiss your weekends goodbye too. I used to schedule our time off of the catering calendar over a year in advance, because if I didn’t it would get booked and we would have worked for months without a break. Well no more of that! And for me? My blood pressure is the lowest it has been in YEARS. So just remember good things can come from “failure” and everything is a learning moment.
For more on sloCooking check out this post.