Getting

I’ve been lighthearted this week. Part of it was a choice, part of it just a gift. I realized I was trying to scale out of this deep, 20-foot tall, slimy, muddy hole (in vain, I might add) when all I had to do was turn around. The opposite wall was only 12” tall, allowing me to hop out of that dark place. So instead of trying to scale a 20 foot wall, I did a high step out of that pit.

Weird how that happens. One half attitude, one half grace.

I’m looking at work in a “get to” perspective instead of a “have to” mentality. Instead of complaining about my nutty schedule, I think, “I get to work today.” Or, instead of whining about teaching a class at 8 a.m. (before the normal time coffee fully kicks in), I tell myself I GET to teach this class. Sometimes those mind games really work.

Honestly, the week started off rather rough with back-to-back (to-back-to-back) meetings Monday morning. Already tired by 10 a.m., one of the 70+ year-old volunteers who helps my assistant tentatively approached my office. I must have looked cross (or exhausted) because she timidly handed me a gift bag. Inside, a beautiful plum crocodile purse that she "saw and thought of me" over the weekend.

I'd been admiring her plum crocodile purse all winter and when she saw another one, she bought it for me. Humbled at her kindness, I thought, "Wow. I GET to work with some amazing, thoughtful people."

I was doing a lot of that on my morning commutes this week, telling myself how lucky I am because I get to do this job and work with these people. I GET to teach a class from 8-10. Then I GET to visit a very cool, live disaster drill where the hospital handled 120 “victims” of a hazmat spill. The “victims” were high school seniors from the local high school who got out of class for the morning to serve the hospital- helping us practice our decontamination skills. We were shocked to see two news outlets and one newspaper reporter show up to document the event! Our hospital’s hazmat crew (who came in on their unpaid days off) looked so proud when interviewed and photographed. As they took the hazmat tents down, I ran to the nearest pizzeria and picked up 10 pizzas for the crew. I GET to buy those awesome guys pizza.

Then I GET to see those guys on the front page of the paper. Talk about morale boost for the hospital!

Later that day, I received a phone call asking me to serve as a panelist for an upcoming ethics conference. Not sure about the schedule requirements, I quickly talked myself into it, on my premise of "Holy cow, I GET to do this."

Last week, I challenged one of my managers to excel in class. She’s doing her master’s in nursing and had a terrible stats class. In joking, I told her I’d buy her lunch if she passed stats. This morning, she emailed me one sentence…”I passed stats, you owe me a drink!” I remembered offering her LUNCH, not drinks, but hey, that could be interesting bonding. I hope she’s not planning on tequila shots…

Regardless, I GET to take a manager out for lunch.

Finally, I've way over my head in my quasi-black belt Lean training. I GET to shepherd nine green belts through their yellow and green belt training, helping to make sure their projects are appropriately scoped and completed. I get to remove obstacles when they arise. I get to sit through the green belts' training, so I can make diligent notes about parking lot items or project ideas. It's completely overwhelming, for we have so much work to do.

However, we GET to be the change agents to help improve healthcare. That's enough to inspire me to jump out of bed each morning. It's tiring to face my life with the "get to" mentality, but it sure does make things more optimistic.

A nice side perk? Optimistic days require far less caffeine!