Whoa!

In the words of Joey Lawrence, "Whoa!"

I'm not quite sure where this week went. I kept peeling myself out of bed every morning to attack the goals and issues at hand...and I was one tired pup by last night after FINALLY having my work week conclude at 9 pm on a Friday night.

Quick recap of the great things from the week:

On Monday, I left work "early" at 4pm to come home and work on my ethics paper. After approximately 40 hours of work on the paper, I'm proud to say I have a rough draft complete!

Tuesday was fun because it crystallized how I was going to reorganize and restructure a group of core functions and accreditation items. I pitched the idea to Nurse Jackie in a proposal and she accepted it. VERY excited about this!

On Wednesday, I had an optimism-sustaining dinner with the president of one of our sister hospitals. Elvis hooked me up with her (I will call her Liz) as an in-system mentor. I left work to make our 6:00 p.m. on time and felt jilted when I was sitting in the fancy steakhouse's parlor alone, at 6:08. Giving it a few more minutes, I saw her dash up the stairs. Whew! Not jilted by the first woman president I had the pleasure of meeting personally.

Dinner was magnificent. The stuff of Lifetime movies and Stephen Covey books. We connected intimately on shared stories, similar experiences, paralleling personalities, and even...the same model and color cars. It was as if I caught a glance of myself twenty years down the line. That is, if I am blessed enough to have similar opportunities and never-ending motivation. We sat there and three hours went by as if it were 20 minutes and I gained a perspective I previously hadn't had. It was EXACTLY what I needed to keep pedaling forward.

The week closed out with a mixed bag on Friday. I helped facilitate the next round of Lean classes. The first class went really well and I was proud of our presenters who struggled to overlearn the material to serve as outstanding presenters. Things fell apart in the second class, where several managers canceled or didn't show. We progressed with class anyway and used the small-group forum for focused Q&A...but I never want the presenters to feel as though others don't value their work. I put a call into my beloved VP of HR to help me deal with the blazing accountability issues.

The day turned around when Jack and I attended a graduation ceremony for our medical residents and fellows at one of the local country clubs. This is the post-doctoral program, where the D.O.'s and M.D.'s get their practical training in their specialty of choice. They were all in their late 20's or early 30's (some in their mid-30's) having been in school their ENTIRE lives. So it was a big deal. And I passed out a ton of free drink vouchers on behalf of the hospital, encouraging the young physicians to have a good time. They did. And we split because it was quickly approaching 9 p.m. and I was seeing mirages of my bed!

All in all, I grew this week and gained some perspective. I'm still learning to take the good with the bad and power through it anyway...people never cease to amaze me with their own determination and perseverance. You know what they say, 'every flower has to grow through dirt!'