Yesterday, Will and I spent the day at a supervisors and managers workshop. We’ve owned our business for just over two years now and we are finally getting to that comfortable point of know how the day to day operations go and more importantly when we can leave. Our business is located directly next door to our house which has pros and cons. The pros being that we are always close to run over for a quick meeting, we can answer the phones at home, there is always food available in the big cooler next door, we never have to ask our neighbors for a cup of sugar or eggs. The cons being we are always working if we are home because the phone is always ringing, someone is always just dropping in for a few questions, running over for a quick minute usually turns into 45 minutes to an hour. It is really difficult to draw the line because it is not like a normal job. So, days when we can work away from home are nice because we can focus and actually have time to talk. Nobody tells you all of the job duties and responsibilities that you are going to take on when you buy a business. I don’t think anyone really knows what they are getting into until they are up their ears with work that needs to be done. What I really liked about the workshop was that they really encouraged delegating tasks to your employees, something that we do not always do. The instructor also touched upon personality styles, dealing with conflict, and the importance of good communication skills. We have a lot of growing to do as supervisors but I think that learning to be someones manager/supervisor is a good life skill. I know that I need to work on my self esteem and become a more confident leader, something that I have never been comfortable with despite my military training. I also found it interesting that the instructor dabbled in the law of attraction. From reading The Secret by Rhonda Byrne I recognized some of the goal setting techniques; I always get geeked out when something I read comes up in conversation. Will is not usually a sit in a classroom type but I think he got really motivated to keep moving forward with his goals. We are going to sit down and finally write down our goals and expectations for our business, something that we haven’t done for probably two years. I think it’s really important to keep addressing your goals in order to stay on track. I love this quote from Anthony Robbins “action is the foundational key to all success.” I absolutely agree, you can’t just plant the seed and expect it to grow. It still needs water, fertilizer and sun, along with an occasional pulling of weeds the keep it alive.
We took the opportunity of being away all day and extended it into a date night which was very much needed. The most difficult thing about working with your spouse is that you are always around each other and often don’t have anything to talk about when you do finally go on a date. Last night was really different, we finally had good conversation, something that has been lacking for quite some time. I don’t really know what changed, maybe because I’ve really separated myself from the business while the kids are home for the summer. When I worked away from home we had a much closer different relationship. I would go to work, I could go to the gym before heading home, I had different people to talk with and I had my own little social circle. Since owning the business and quitting my job things have been quite a bit different. I realized that I don’t have any real friends because before I only had my work friends. Now I’m realizing that I need to really make myself more available to relationships outside of the house. I don’t get as much free time to myself to include time to workout because I have so many distractions at home. It has really come to my attention that I’m not taking the greatest care of my personal needs but I’m hopeful and more important, I’m aware that I need to make some changes and get into a better routine. At the workshop the instructor brought up a frightening statistic about friendships or rather lack there of, I wish I had written this down. He said that if you don’t have at least five close friends you are more likely to die of heart disease or have a stroke before the age of 60. I found this article which touches on the topic, it didn’t include any statistics but it is a good read. Anyway, this really shook me up because I’m not exactly the greatest at making friends and keeping commitments with social ties. Probably because I’ve been a mom since I was 19 and never learned or had the opportunity to experience that stage of life. I never had a lot of friends in high school, sure I had my band friends and the girls I sat with at lunch, but I’ve never been a social person and that was never really encouraged or developed growing up. Social skills are so very important and the older I get the more I become aware of it. Obviously yesterdays class has touched a few nerves in me and has me really thinking about my life style choices. Either that or the latte that I forgot to order as a decaf has me all juiced up.
Is your mom home? 