Life's difficulties are coming at me from many different directions. My family is drifting apart. I do what I can to stay connected with them, but my efforts haven't changed the situation very much. Mother's day is this weekend so I'm sure it's kicking up difficult feelings for them just as it is for me. My relationship with Panthea is really strained. We're going in different directions, rarely see each other, and never have sex anymore. For awhile we fighting during every conversation. Lately we don't fight, but I think that's because we rarely talk. I listen to what she's saying... her perspective on how she looks at me now and it's clear that our relationship is in jeopardy. There is still love between us, but I wonder how much of it is residual and how much of it is still "being in love." Professionally my world has been rocky. I have 3 warehouse guys: one of them was on his honeymoon this week and one of them has been out sick for 4 of the 5 days this week. Since it really takes people to effectively get orders out the door, the task of taking up the slack has fallen on my shoulders. I've been getting to the shop around 7 in the morning, working in the office until about 10, then going into the warehouse until 4 or 5 to pack things into boxes and build skids, then back into the office to answer a stack of messages and answer e-mails. Maybe it's karma. I had to fire a sales guy because he had too many outside issues and since I have like zero karma credit with God this is his way of saying that I should have been more patient. In spite of our best efforts our overall sales are kind of flat. I'm trying to do things with the business that are new to us. I don't have staff with experience to get these things done with out me. I try to delegate and point people in the right direction. I encourage them to use their initiative and try to learn on their own. It hasn't worked. I now finally understand the proper context for the phrase "pissing up a rope." The more reach that I try to give other people in our organization the more often they come back to me for help. I don't know either guys... download the trial and see if it works, call the tech support and ask questions... TRY!!! Speaking of trying... I'm trying to lose weight, but it's a struggle because I'm eating to make myself feel better (ice cream is yummy). It's frustrating to struggle with this. Last year I was running and eating healthy, this year I can't stick to the program. I feel like eating is the only thing that makes me feel good right now.When I think about each of these individually I'm able to sustain a decent mindset, but when I take it in all together I find myself crying.
Everyone has difficulties. Mine just seem to happen all at once.
For anyone who actually has real life stress, I offer you this piece of advice: We can't control what they do, but we can control what we allow them to do to us.
Keep your chin up.
-Tom
