Taking advice

Feeling influential today. My opinion has been valued in several different circumstances. It's a great feeling, and it's also something I feel an immediate desire to shy away from. Having people listen gives you power, influence, and responsibility. What if you're wrong?

One of the situations was actually the result of advice I received on my Brainstorming post, both here and in Adholes. When a decision was about to be made with inadequate brainstroming/idea generation/option exploration, I spoke up. I didn't worry about annoying people or prolonging the process (well, I did worry, but I didn't let that stop me), and I suggested we should try reaching a little further. I threw some ideas out there - wild, crazy, dorky, bland - just to get the ball rolling. And you know what? People were receptive.

We started a piggy-backing process and ended up with a really solid final result from a team member who may not have said anything had we not ventured down that road.

That made me feel great :)

It is nice to have good mental/emotional victories to get you through the day. Especially when you start your day by getting a shirt stuck on because your arms have put on so much weight. Must do something about that.

I can sense my pendulum about to swing back toward hyper-productivity... I wonder if I can temper it this time around. Can I settle on mildly productive and well-balanced? We'll see. But I can feel the energy of spring sneaking up on me. I have a desire to plan and take action, get fit, get organized, and produce, produce, produce!

Let's hope I can do it all sanely.