When “New” Becomes the NEW “Normal”
Overwhelmed again at work…
I’m three months in. Somehow I was able to keep up. It’s uncomfortable to feel like you can’t keep up with the workload, as if you’re not meant for that kind of job. Maybe you are, maybe you’re not. But remind yourself this: if you were able to keep up this whole time, if you didn’t let the overwhelming tasks hit you emotionally, you’ll most likely survive future challenges (more “overwhelming” tasks).
You level up when you go beyond what you thought what you’re capable of. It’s when the uncomfortable becomes comfortable. It’s when the “unusual”, “weird” or “hard” becomes the new “normal”. We unconsciously level up.
I don’t love driving. I hate…
- driving downtown – heavy traffic.
- parking downtown – no place to park.
- using vehicles I don’t own – I don’t want to be responsible if something happens.
- driving large vehicles (trucks in particular) – afraid I might hit someone when changing lanes.
…until one day when I had to do some driving for work.
This was with the previous company I worked for. The business was so slow that I had to help out by doing things “beyond” what I was hired to do. I was tasked to do some delivery downtown.
I hated it—so much that I thought about refusing to do it again next time. Avoiding the chance of becoming the new “go to person” for that kind of task. And if it gets to that point, I’ll quit.
And so I drove this truck – the level of uncomfortable-ness was at 10 (where “10” is most uncomfortable). Thinking it’s a one-time thing, I survived.
Until I was asked to drive again. I bitched, a little more this time. I survived but I considered refusing and be more firm about it next time – but somehow the uncomfortable-ness went down to “9”.
And then again. This time, I knew my bitching didn’t do anything. I drove. I realized I didn’t have the balls to quit. Then again I survived. The level of uncomfortableness has gone down to “7”.
That kept happening until I got used to it. The level of uncomfortable-ness has gone down to “3” (no not zero, I prefer not to drive).
What’s hard becomes easy if you keep pushing through it.
We become better at handling the challenging tasks we face. We unconsciously become more capable, despite the thought our reptile brain wants us to think “I can’t do it…”.
That goes true with pretty much anything in life you want to accomplish. If you want…
- Sexy body – you hit the gym every day even if you’re already tired from work. You lift heavier and heavier weights as you go.
- Promotion at work – you work hard to be a valuable member of the organization. You take more and more responsibilities as you go.
- To eat healthier – you try hard not to give into your cravings. You do it by avoiding one bad dessert or snack at a time instead of going cold turkey.
I can go on and on but you get the point. When feeling“overwhelmed” becomes the new “normal”, it’s a sign that I leveled up at work! We evolve over time.
Challenges exist, they always will. They pop-up out of nowhere. And it’s worth it to be prepared. I’ve had a few…
Interesting Mornings
I had to place hide-n-seek with our turtle.
As soon as I got up to feed him, he was nowhere to be found. His tank was empty. Not sure how he got out. Turtles can’t jump. And with that big heavy shell, I didn’t think he’d be able to lift himself up.
Check under the couch? Nope.
Dark corners of the room? Nope.
In the bathroom? Nope.
Until I heard some movement. I might have scared him by moving stuff around.
Then I found him here…
…under the TV stand.
This happened a couple times now. It offsets my morning routine which is I’m ok with – it takes out the “boring” part of my morning.
Another interesting morning I had was when my shoelace broke just before I was leaving for work!
Stupid thing snapped on me. Note: I don’t do enough bicep curls that would cause me to break it by accident. Maybe it was worn out?
Anyway, so what did I do?
I “McGyvered” my way out of it – like those people in Mentos commercials.
My first solution: use another pair of shoes – but I don’t have any. None of my other shoes go with black pants and they’re definitely not for work.
The second solution was to re-do the shoelace using the longer end. But the other end with (the loose end) was just too hard to fit into that tiny hole. Doing that would cost me probably about 10-minutes which would’ve caused me to be late for work. I don’t want to be late and so I changed my approach.
I ended up doing this…
…tied the broken shoelace together and reused it. It looks ugly but I didn’t care. I laughed at myself on my way out the door.
I came to work like that and no one even noticed until I pointed it out.
No one really pays attention to you as much as you think.
Most people criticise themselves instead of letting others criticise them.
What about you? Anything interesting that happened to you this week?