Refining & Reordering

The last 12-18 months of my life have held a wide variety of ups, downs, and changes. This seems to be true for most friends and peers in my age bracket, so I don't think myself particularly special. But I think its good and helpful to call things for what they are, even if they're nothing out of the ordinary... and reality is that my life has had a lot of major changes as of late.

When major things in our lives are quaking the best we can often do is to try to find our footing and stay upright. Sometimes all we can try to do is just make it through to the other side as un-tattered as possible. And then later (sometimes much later) when the dust settles we can attempt to reorder our lives amidst the rubble. This is a period of recognizing that things are not the same as before and we have to discover a new way of operating.  Recently, more so than navigating the quakes, I feel like I'm in this latter phase of reordering my life amidst the rubble. 

Life is different. I'm different. The question is...now what do I do?

A few months ago, I had a review with my boss and was asked in advance to prepare some short term goals related to my work for discussion. This review came about 8 months into my employment, so I still considered myself in the training-phase and didn't have a huge number of "job related goals" because I'm still learning what all my job entails. But I knew there were some general work-ethic/good-job-habit sorts of things I could improve on, so I brought these to discuss:  

• Come into work "less rushed" and a little closer to "on time." (Goal: 7:31 AM as opposed to 7:35ish)
• Dress with an attitude that wearing clothes is not equal to wearing an outfit. I was dressing fine and within code, but wanted to step it up one notch. 
• Create a list every day and follow it to the best of my ability. 
• Take advantage of my allotted 15 minute morning and afternoon breaks every day and rest for a little while.

I didn't feel particularly impressive when I brought these to the table, but was pleasantly surprised by how pleased my boss was with these little goals. He encouraged me in them and told me it may be a good practice to save my lists and to keep a log of my achievements and failures for inspiration. I thought this was a great idea and began a couple weeks later.

Learning a new job certainly has felt like navigating a number of little quakes. All things considered, it hasn't been too bad, but it's only about now (almost a year in) that I feel like I have a decent handle on what responsibilities have been given to me so far. This made it seem like an appropriate time to begin doing more than just trying to find my footing and these goals are an attempt towards that end.

Like my little work-related goals, I know there are other areas in my life where I can slowly begin refine and reorder as well:

• I can work on improving care & cleanliness in my car now that I have stable transportation. 
• I can organize my closets towards optimal functionality now that I won't be moving every few months. 
• I can follow a normal bedtime routine now that I live with my (now) husband and don't have to drive across town. 
• I can have a go-to, morning routine now that I have stable working hours, a stable home, and a husband to get the coffee started for me. 

The list goes on and on of things that were rocky, changing, and even uncertain that are all at least a little more stable now. A lot of things are new, but the dust has settled enough so that I can begin working toward ordering everyday things  now that I'm a wife, an employee, a car-owner, someone with a permanent address, etc., etc. 

This is a pretty exciting task ahead, especially after so many months of constant shifts and major changes that seemed to come one right after another. Perhaps more of those times will come, but I'm certainly glad to have a little time where I can stand a little more firmly amidst the rubble and can begin reordering a life with all this newness.