Workshop with the French

Last week my colleague from France arrived for the 3.5-day workshop. He is a nice guy in his late forties who is the overall project manager. He actually proposed the workshop with him coming over. The workshop went well with people calling from France, India, Mexico, and United States. The workshop was a last resort measure to get back to schedule. The project was delayed and needed this 'emergency' workshop to get back on track.

An action plan was brought up, target dates defined, and problems solved, with everyone contributing their part. I organized these sessions, booking the meeting rooms and ensuring that the needed people were present. Sometimes I was at my wit's end with all the complexities and the different personalities getting together. But it was actually a fun activity with the team going out for lunch at a Mexican restaurant. The workshop hopefully restored some of the lusters of my reputation since the delay was something I could have avoided and let slip thru my hands.

The past months had seen the departure of key people, movement to a new post ( including me) the changing requirements which have overwhelmed me. I had to just tread along, accepting the blows, moving the project one step at a time forward. I think I was close to boiling over with all the activity, anxiety, overthinking, and seeming slights that I may have erupted the wrong way during some meeting scheduled on Friday. But I think was able to maintain a proper attitude despite some outbursts.

I still managed to play golf at our weekly session on Thursday afternoon, with a tee-off at 4 pm which was an hour earlier than our usual start. The game was held at River Falls which is a much more difficult course than Willow Creek and prettier. I even won some points. Today we went biking at Swamp Rabbit Trail and I also mowed the lawn and worked on my garage which is a mess. So I did manage to do other work and play despite the tensions at work.

As I worked on my garage, I acknowledged that I have an affliction of clutter, with the inability to organize all the stuff that I buy. This is truly a buying addiction that may be related to stress including the inability to organize and declutter my stuff. I really need to donate or throw things away to get back space. I do allow things to get worse like my garage, yard, and my projects because I do too many things, my mind consumed with my many passions. I make the excuse that I am a creative, an artist who needs this disorder so the mind can work on creation. Unfoirtunatnately I have nothing to show for it. 

To succeed, I need to be more conscientious and get my act together. I need to work smarter than my usual ways that verge more on spontaneous and intuitive actions, rather than process-oriented ones with good notes, structure, and diligent focus. I allow my mind to roam free and explore new ideas and associations which sometimes leads to indulgence, waste, and a messy environment as the artist has no time for housework. But his attitude is not sustainable if one needs to rise to a higher level of achievement.