Workaholic

All I do is work. I sat down the other morning with Mackenzie to color and I thought, “Ooooh I can write a list of things I need to do at work. “ Sick. I decided to write this instead. So, the first draft of this blog was done in crayon.

Am I a workaholic? I certainly don’t feel like I am. I do enjoy working, but it’s not like I wouldn’t rather be doing something else. Slow walk in the park with Mack. Have a cup of coffee with Kay. Nice long bike ride. That’s just not the way I’m wired though. If I’ve got something that needs to be done I want to be doing it. I see this in my father a lot. It’s a general kind of restlessness when there are things (work) to be done.

This feeling goes away when I achieve what I call balance. That is a balance between having enough done to avoid being “yelled” at and actually being caught up completely. Balance is a state of being neither behind nor ahead. What I’m talking about isn’t a math formula. It’s not a list. I can mark any number of things off my to-do list and still not be balanced. The only way I can describe it is as an extremely complicated calculation that runs subconsciously in my head. It’s hard to predict when I will achieve balance. Mostly I just work straight through until it happens. If I do stop working I’m restless as I mentioned above.

The formula has become even more complicated lately as I’ve started to manage even more projects and people. Motel 6 has expanded from ADA work to include Technical Services remodels, and new construction. At any given time I will have five to ten people working for me and they will each be working on two to three projects at the same time. By the end of last week my brain was done and I literally ran out of the office on Friday. I thought if I can just get to the weekend I can reorganize and be ready to start again on Monday.

Is there a point to this blog? Not really. From the above I can draw one conclusion though. I was built to be a manager. I know that one of God’s purposes for making me the way I am was to manage and direct people. When I accepted this several months ago I got the distinct impression God was saying I would someday manage managers. I tried of my own efforts to achieve this prophecy, but only after I had given up and let life run its course did it get fulfilled. There’s a lesson there. I just hope I’ve learned it.