As I mentioned last week, I have been going gang busters for months now and it has become crucial that I take that much needed break – which I will be doing starting Friday.
One of the things that I mentioned that happens to me when I am stretched too thin is I get “dumb” and make lots of little mistakes and create a lot of general nuisance for myself and others around me.
This has happened several times over the past week, ranging from going to a showroom to pick things out for a client and not having the client’s file with me, to setting up conference calls with my old and new mastermind groups and completely messing up the scheduling, resulting in way too much confusion and way too much email back and forth to get things straightened out.
So it’s irritating and a big bother for everyone involved but yes, eventually this stuff starts to have an impact beyond annoying and into downright unprofessional. Which is what happened yesterday.
Over a year ago a former student of mine loaned me some material knowing that I would enjoy the information. I did enjoy the information, and was happy she had shared. In the meantime, I did NOT return the material to her (I can’t even imagine what excuse I came up with in my head) it just sat in my bookshelf where it has always sat. Until I remodeled my kitchen – which is next to my office – so the next thing you know nothing is where you think it is. Which I didn’t know til Monday, when my student called and said hey, drop my stuff in the mail to me. So I marched right to my bookshelf – and it’s gone. It’s not there. And it’s not there in that way that I am 99% sure that I am never going to see it again.
I was just sick about it. Talk about not being considerate! Here a STUDENT of mine who is willing to look to me as a mentor loans me her personal things and I was not considerate enough to return them promptly and THEN actually lose them! For real! I went into damage control mode and was able to track down another copy of the material for her – but that’s not the point. The point is:
She was crazy understanding and unbelievably gracious when I told her what happened (and as I expressed my complete embarrassment and unprofessionalism). And later as I reflected I realized I had not been the same to her in regards to her things. And. EVERYONE who I have been infringing upon in my state of “stretched too thin” has been incredibly kind and gracious. So. My request of you this week is to reflect on your behavior – are YOU being as kind as gracious as you can be? Not in just your personal life but your business life? Are you being understanding of your clients in this shakey economic time? And are you being understanding of yourself?
My thanks and gratitude to those of you who have been and consistently are kind, gracious and understanding. I strive to be the same.
Have a great week,
-Mary Larsen
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Great reminder…to relax before being stretched “too thin”, to be gracious and kind always-as you will want others to do the same for you and…that we are all human!
<3
It happens to the best of us! I, too, and preparing to leave for vacation and had planned to install some woven wood shades for a client this week before leaving. I realized just before they arrived that I had failed to add “lining” to the order. Therefore, they were not what my customer wanted and I had to send them back to be remade. Not only did this cost me time but it also ate into my profit. Of course, my client was very gracious about it – she, too, is leaving for vacation so she understood my mental lapse!
Mary, we’ve all been there at one time or another. Don’t beat yourself up about it. I hope your enjoy your much deserved break.]
I find that when I am stretched so thin I cannot focus. I bounce from one task to the next and complete nothing well. I also think we are much more forgiving of other people’s short comings than we are of our own. After all we are human as Kathleen said above, and we can learn from our errors.
Kathleen, Anne, Connie and Sharon – thank you all for your comments – very true, we are all human which is a good reminder in and of itself – thanks for sharing!
Oh! And how did I forget to thank Deb who jumped through hoops with graciousness and kindness to help fix my mistake??! Thank you!!!