Standing strong for what you believe

Decide to stand strong even when you are not sure what for!

I love this picture of my dog, Harley.  He stands firm in everything he does. He is very needy when it comes to affection. On the other hand, my dog, Miley, is spastic. She doesn't like to sit still. She can take or leave affection after the first 30 seconds of petting. But Harley. Harley can sit next to you for hours if only you will pet him. Good luck if you try to budge him. He will stand firm. He will sit firm. He knows what he wants and he usually gets it. Either by being there first or by wearing you down until you give in. He has no where to be, so he has all day to devote to getting what he wants. Thankfully, he usually just wants some love. I think I am more like Miley, but I would love to be more like Harley.
What could I accomplish, if only I would be relentless in going after what I want? I don't mean be ruthless or unkind, but relentless. But, what is it I want? If I am going to stand strong, I should have a reason as to why- right?  I need to believe in what I am doing. But what if I don't know what I believe? I don't mean cosmically. I know my faith. I believe in God. I believe Christ died for my sins. I believe I am going to Heaven. But I struggle with the day to day knowing what I should do, what my goals should be. I want to be one of those strong people. One who stands relentlessly for what I want. But the problem is I rarely know what I want. Or maybe I should say, I rarely believe what I want is right. I know I am supposed to work hard in the our business. But I struggle with finding my place, because I am not really doing something I enjoy. But it is our family business, so I do it. And I am not sure what I would do outside of the business. Sure- I have some ideas. Things I like to do and day dream about making a living at. But would the reality work? I haven't found out- yet. But for now, I have to find a way to stand strong in doing something I am not sure I have faith in doing. That is a day to day struggle. I remind myself I am doing this for my family. That helps, but I feel like I fall short in my "standing strong". But I have to keep on keeping on. I used to have a boss that said you should act the part, even if you don't have the position yet. Sound advice. May I be more like my relentless Harley, standing firm in what I am doing and in what I want. Even when I am unsure what that is.
Thanks for reading!

Perspective

Nothing Like A Little Change of Perspective

   Our oldest son left for college last this fall. He's a good kid, and I was sorry to pack him up and send him off. But we raised him to be independent and it is his time to find his own way. But I miss him. I miss being a part of his daily life. He keeps in touch, mostly through texting, but it isn't the same. The first few weeks were hard. All of the sudden the same house we have lived in for 10 years, didn't feel the same. Every room looked the same, but felt different. It was like a mirror image. The rooms looked the same but were not the same. Every night after I put our younger two children to bed, I walked into his room and looked around. It just felt empty without him there. I felt empty without him there. So what did I do? I rearranged my house of course!
   So, I didn't rearrange it all by myself.  We turned the exercise room back into a formal living area (I have been waiting years to do this!). The upstairs game room became the exercise room/game room, ie: lots of video games and exercise equipment. We rearranged the kids' rooms. We rearranged our own bedroom. The cats roamed warily through the seemingly new house. Exploring, inspecting the changes. I walked through the house the night we finished. I put the two younger kids were in bed. The house was quiet. It didn't feel so empty anymore. It was all the same stuff. Just rearranged. I still miss my son, but I no longer have to catch my breath when I walk into a room where I can still clearly picture him, even though he wasn't there.
   A change of perspective can make an impossible situation the best thing that ever happened to you. Or it can turn a house that breaks your heart back into a home again.

Priorities

Low Hanging Fruit. 
How Do I Choose What to Pick?

    The other day I was talking with my husband. I was feeling completely overwhelmed by everything I had to get done. He told me my problem was that I always felt like everything was life or death. I didn't know how to prioritize. Me. I was in retail management for years. My entire job was prioritizing. Yet here I was listening to my husband tell me I didn't know how to prioritize. I didn't want to, but I had to consider that he may be right. I have so much on my plate, and I truly didn't know what to do first. I live by lists. And I know my life has spun out of control when I can't even start the list.
    When I was in retail, I had a district manager who love to say we needed to go after "low hanging fruit'. The problem was, everything was low hanging fruit to him. He would read off the list of goals my management team needed to hit. I would ask which was the most important, and he would tell me they all were. Some people are very good at digging through the mud to find the life raft. I used to be one of those people. But somewhere along the way, I lost that insight, that ability to decide this is more important than that. I lost my self confidence. That is what this boils down to. I used to know my job so well that I knew what needed to be done, how long it would take and who would be best person to do it. 
   Starting a new business is starting over. You may know the industry, but it takes on a different life when you are a business owner. You are expected to know everything about what you are selling. As a business owner, I want to know everything, be able to answer every question a client may ask. That isn't realistic when you start out and it has eaten into my confidence. I just have to keep working on it. It's hard when there are so many things coming at you at once. These days everything moves at such a fast pace. It's hard to slow down, take a breath and write down that To Do list in priority order. But that is exactly what our world needs these days. Everything cannot be done at once. Unless you are willing to settle for mediocre results. You cannot be an expert at everything, yet that is exactly what the world expects. Now, one person does a job it took 5 people to do ten years ago. 
   I am not an expert at everything. I never will be and I have to accept that fact. There are things I am very good at. I will be work on a list of those things. I will sit down and make that priority list, based on what has to be done, what I can do and then what I would like to do. I will not hide my head behind my arms and hope the world will settle down for me. I will just have to become the expert at what I am good at. Find my niche in this new business venture. I have done it before. I will do it again. I think that is what I have been lacking; the belief that I can do this well. Talking (writing) through this has brought me to the conclusion that the priority is to become the expert again. Use that expertise to take care of the client in business and my loved ones in life. That is the priority. Thanks for working this through with me!