Eureka!!

YES, I FIGURED IT OUT!!  Twiddle-dee-dee, Twiddle-dee-da!  No, it's not something incredibly revolutionary really, unless you're...well, me.  You're all about think I'm a huge dork, because after you see what I figured out you're going to think, "Ummmmmm.... Great insight, but 'eureka' moments usually involve the invention of electricity or the Kama Sutra or something...".  Well, TOO BAD!!  I hooked you with my last post so now you're going to read it whether you like it or not - mwah hahahaha!!!

Anyways...

Since my little "incident" earlier this week (ahem, we'll just call it a little "snafu" in the work/love-of-life continuum), I've had a problem I've been trying to work out.  Actually, I've been trying to work this out since January when the pressure at work started to build, and I was desperately trying to recover from some major burnout (ok, Jane, we get it, you have a problem, not get to the point! lol).  Why has it been so difficult for me to focus on work the past three months?

Last year I spent all my time and energy (yes, even during non-work hours) pouring myself into how I can increase my sales opportunities, move my customers into the next stage of the sales process, get distributors to increase their sales activities with my product... I tend to be a rather strategic thinker, and I love coming up with new ideas (ya think?) and plans that I can put into action to solve a problem or elevate a situation.  It's what I do naturally, and generally has served me well, particularly in a sales role.

Well, the past few months I haven't been doing that.  I haven't been terribly inspired, I haven't really enjoyed work, and I've been trying to find a new career path that would be more enjoyable than the one I'm in.  I keep asking myself: "If I like all this strategy and ideation stuff, why don't I just apply it to work while I'm in the process of working out how that translates into a life-long career?  Why was I able to do this before, and now, because of a little burnout, I don't have any interest in it?".

I'm actually in the process of working with a Career Coach to try to answer some of my future career questions, ones that will likely not be fully realized for years, but that will enable me to better cope with and understand the work life I have right now.  I'm not sure, but at some point while reading through the results of a strengths assessment, I had a Eureka moment about this problem!  No, I didn't actually stand up and yell "Eureka" (though I was tempted).  My husband knows I'm a little weird, but I try not to act like a COMPLETE nutbag (when possible...).

I finally understood why I'm so uninspired, so bored, so uninterested, and so detached from what I'm doing right now: I've reallocated my resources.  Think about it this way: if we're living in a time of peace, we are using our talents and skills to improve and benefit the lives or ourselves and others.  But, say, a civil war breaks out in Florida.  All possible soldiers, food, weapons and other resources will suddenly be collected to be distributed in Florida to support the battle.  And until that battle is resolved, the resources used for improving the lives of ourselves and others will be minimal.

Well, in January this year pressure, stress, and conflict was introduced into my life between me and my boss/superiors.  What I'd done previously wasn't good enough, and suddenly we were all under scrutiny to see if we're really doing everything in our power to meet our goals.  In other words, suddenly a battle broke out.  See, I don't like conflict.  So when that happened, I suddenly reallocated my resources to try to bring peace once again to the relationship between me and my superiors - one which was previously a supportive, functional one.  This still supported my daily work in some ways because closing deals was the end-all goal for all of us, but the charisma, the flow, the natural inspiration of my daily work was stunted by the energy required for this battle.  So, in short, rather than using strategy, planning and ideation to improve my territory over the past three months, I've been using those skills to try to bring peace to my disrupted work relationships.  And my work has suffered from the lack of attention.

Now, this brings me to two conclusions:

1) I need to be brutally self-aware that I do this.  Peaceful relationships are extremely important to me, but they are not always possible.  Sometimes it's appropriate for relationships to be on the rocks while another objective is being achieved.  I need to learn to resist the urge to reallocate my resources to fight a battle that may not be necessary, and may resolve itself in time.

2) Management, particularly my management, is completely unaware that it is human nature to do this.  It has not occurred to them that they are actually severely decreasing the productivity of their workers by putting stress and frustration in our laps. 

I would say this could be something that is unique to me alone, but the frustration is shared with all of my co-workers, so I think it's safe to say that this is further proof that positive motivation almost always prevails over negative motivation.

Why?  Because we naturally gravitate towards eliminating the negative in our lives (I think it's safe to say this is a survival technique).  So when the "boss" throws something negative at us - bam, we send the troops in to fight it; and we don't bring them back to accomplish the original mission until the immediate threat is resolved.

Conclusion?  Don't toss snafus into the work/love-of-life continuum.  And try to use the word 'snafu' a little more often.  It makes me giggle.