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I came home HAPPY tonight

Life will never be perfect.

I left the office today with a pile of "to-do" on my desk that makes my head spin.

And yet, I carved out time today to do the following:

1. have a powerful yet shortened work out this morning that cleared my head and got my blood pumping. When I hit the office this morning, I hit it hard and strong, muscling through an anxiety of mammoth proportion about how I was going to get ANYTHING on my plate done.

2. pause and do networking at an industry conference. That raised my sights, beyond my little desk and day to day concerns and showed me the bigger picture. Seeing folks at a career fair quickly snapped me back to reality: I'm lucky to have a job I love in the industry I am most fond of, and in the function I care deeply about, working with people on my team I love and with colleagues to serve whom I respect. Bollywog that it's overwhelming: I'll find healthy, collaborative ways to slog through this period.

3. I managed my networking time so I could attend to crucial concerns back at the office. I showed my ability to responsibly manage my own career while attending to the core concerns of my role in the organization. AND, I managed my anxiety about being perfect and getting it all done today.

4. I thoughtfully managed others' expectations.

5. I left on time to have personal time with friends to reflect, and improve my consciousness about how I am managing my work, behaving around my human limits, my human vulnerabilities and how impossible expectations of myself, and projected from others onto myself affect me and what I can do to take care of myself while staying in healthy relationship with others. Feedback from caring thoughtful others is CRUCIAL in managing what seems to be impossible. My own faulty thinking can lead me to dangerous plans of action.

6. I then reflected on that on the way home.

Now the chocolate thing...less smart, though some sleep experts do suggest milk and cookies before bed. Well maybe one cookie and a small glass of milk (I'm a rice milk kinda guy myself.)

Sleep well.

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