TGI -- TODAY!

I’m convinced that the weekend is not only a set time carved out in society. It is also a state of mind associated with a great feeling. Why can’t I go “there” Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday? I notice that Friday afternoons put me in a state of freedom, bliss, a feeling that I finally can have a life. I even get a sort of pseudo feeling that I can get totally away from my job duties. I say “pseudo” because as professionals in our field, totally breaking away from job duties is hardly the case sometimes with expedites, appeals, the endless deadlines we are faced with, not to mention the eternal list of things that can go wrong smack dab in the middle of a 500 page transcript that throws indexes and page numbers way off. Argh!

Although family and friends race with enthusiasm into the weekend, our jobs continue ,sometimes to the point that there’s no differentiation between the work week and the so-called weekend . It becomes one big blurry line, unseen by the naked eye, like the Equator, and we just get to “imagine” it. So for me the question becomes how can my whole week become a more enjoyable experience? How can I capture that feeling of fulfillment on any given day, even beyond those designated weekend days? How can I move out of those feelings of fun deprivation, if you will?

We owe it to ourselves a real time out. whether that falls on Wednesday or Saturday, Tuesday or Friday, to infuse the feeling of freedom and expression all the time. We just get to track it a little differently. Maybe we throw in a movie or a nap or a phone call to a friend we haven’t connected with in a while. How about throwing in ten minutes a day to practice a hobby or a puzzle or a do-nothing, anything that will keep us in touch with ourselves just to know we are more than our careers.

Although I don’t have all the vacation time I need to go to Disneyland, and I’m not at the highest step yet to afford an Alaskan cruise, I can take in a movie, a date night with a friend or family member. I can say "yes" sometimes to the invitation instead of the standard, "I gotta work." The work will be there. We'll get it done. We always do. And just be a little more sleepy in the morning than I would have normally been. It's okay. We traded it out for a feeling of well-being in our life, and we deserve that. And for sure on that “last day,” at work or on the planet, I’m not left haunted by the thought “I should have spent more time…..” You fill in the blank. We all know we won’t fill it in with “ at the office” Enjoy that weekend feeling, no matter what day it falls on.

DOES YOUR ELEVATOR GO TO THE TOP?

It's not enough to get past security around here. You've got the challenge of getting on an elevator. I don't know about you, but sometimes I get on the elevators in the courthouse, and I want to press "Chicago" or "New York," or "Home,” or just “Get me outta here!”

As I hopped on one day, I remembered an insulting phrase that is often used, asking "Does your elevator go to the top," meaning pretty much are you mentally “there” or not. While I certainly don’t use that phrase, I was able to give it my own meaning, something I can use in my day-to-day life at work or home or wherever I find myself in a situation where I am at the fork in the road, meaning I have a choice to make, to take the opportunity to get sidetracked and distracted because of my own life crap that seems to follow me around or somebody else’s crap that causes them to give me rift.

I decided that whenever I allow any of those situations to hop into my mental or emotional elevator, I’ll just press the button that gives those situations a quick ride to the top. I’ll try and remember that I can move past this moment by not allowing it to get the best of me. I can immediately replace the anger that’s building or the insulting feelings I am experiencing with a “higher” thought, something on the seventh floor or higher! Something like, “Well, I guess I won’t take that personally. It’s not about me” or “He” or “ She must have had a miserable drive to work” or “They are really stressed out. “

Again, I get choose to rise above the situation mentally and emotionally. That person doesn’t get to determine how far I rise in my own elevator. I’ll just breathe through it and know that if and when they finally get it that they don’t need to try and make my life miserable, just because they are miserable, I’ll see’em “at the top, where I choose to hang out. Then if worse gets to worst, I’ll just take the stairs.