4/30/2011

Labeler

At work - my real job that they pay me to do and is my actual profession - we've been tasked with adding creative labels to our email signatures. It's an optional team building exercise, and meant to be fun. For example, your label could be, "Jane Doe, League Bowler," "John Smith, Stamp Collector," or "Sauron, Dark Lord." But when it comes to labeling myself, I am undecided. "Describe yourself in three words" is not a test I can easily pass.
If you want to hire me, the words are "efficient," "dependable," and "resolute" (That's not a solicitation. I'm not for hire). If you were my friend, you might use the words "crazy," "talkative," "supportive." If you were not my friend, you might say "crazy," "talkative," "annoying." If you were my mom before I turned 18, you wouldn't say so much as yell "lazy," "argumentative," "goddammityouneverlistentomedon'tyoutalkbacktomegotoyourroomrightnowyounglady!"
While the email labels at work aren't meant to define you, but to give others a glimpse into the person you are outside of work, a part of me feels that I should give as complete a picture as I can. I want to expose the traits of mine that I like best. The worst and greatest piece of this is that the difficulty in choosing lies in the fact that I have many traits that I like. If that sounds like bragging, please understand that it took me a long time to become a me that I like. If you remain unconvinced, please refer back to the previous paragraph's descriptions of me filtered through the voices of my enemies and my mother.

4/06/2011

Resolution Maker

I don't usually make New Year's Resolutions. I know myself enough to know that unless I'm ready for it, any attempted lifestyle change won't happen. But once I am ready, I stick with the change pretty well. This year, though, I was ready to work on some things, and 2011 just happened to be a few days away, so I said, "why not," to resolutions. One of which is to, ahem, write more. heh. Not the least of reasons being to keep up with this poor neglected blog. Another is to keep a food diary - which I am happy to report that, as of this writing, I only lapsed for a few weeks, but am back on the wagon*. Having attempted this feat many times prior, this is huge for me.
There aren't many more; I kept the list small because I know that if I can handle these few changes, I'll be encouraged to make more, and I won't wait until the New Year to do it. It's the same for any habit I wish to develop; tell me it takes 2 weeks to see results, and 15 days pass with no change, I'm done. Tell me it takes 2 weeks, and I see results, I'm sticking with it forever.
This past month, I lost 4 pounds. That's one a week. I'd call that results.
Now for the writing...

*With many, many thanks to http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ and its mobile app.