Preoccupation

Preoccupation.  As someone with Arranger as one of my top strengths I spend a lot of time thinking through possible scenarios, outcomes, and paths things at work and at home may take and how all of the pieces may align to get there.  This can be a blessing, especially  now as I find myself leading a product development team, but it can also be a curse that follows me throughout the day and night as I mull over an infinite number of situations and outcomes each day brings.  Lately I've had more going on that I can feasibly wrap my head around, from work to things in and outside of the house, and I've found it's been hard to focus on any one thing leaving my mind constantly churning on multiple fronts.

Enter my commute this morning and Mr. John Eldridge.  As I mentioned here I opened an Audible account to ease the pain of my short-term 45min commute burning through a few of his books (Wild at Heart, Beautiful Outlaw, and Waking the Dead, all of which I'd highly recommend) in that time. Although I'm back to a reasonable commute and have been biking in as much as possible, I kept the account open and have been listening to Fathered by God over the past few months when I drive in, encountering multiple instances where the morning's content from the book directly related to what I was wrestling with on my way to work.  

Mind full of possible outcomes from the day full of meetings ahead of me I heard  "Don't fight battles more than once going over them in your mind thinking through how things might go because you do not know how they will go. Fight the temptation to do this taking resolve to control your thoughts and steer them in a different direction freeing yourself from worry and not being preoccupied with possible outcomes. Resist it quickly do not let things get a foothold." (Paraphrased from memory)

BAM. Alright God, heard ya.  Turns out this day would be the perfect test case for this, meetings didn't go as planned, a couple of key decisions on a project I thought were a done deal got opened back up, I got a virus on my computer leading to 2hrs I didn't have being wasted on the phone with IT and leaving me working from my phone most of the day, the list goes on.  

All that said, the day turned out pretty good, with Mr Eldrich's words fresh In my mind I made a conscious (and continuous) effort to fight my instincts and roll with it, take one thing at a time and not worry about what was around the corner or in the next conference room.  Things didn't go perfectly, I had to work late, and there's lots more to do today, but I was able to focus on the family and relax when I got home (again with some conscious effort) before my evening conference call and slept like a rock, waking up refreshed and ready to roll this morning prepared to take on a new day of challenges and adventures!