Workshop - the eight-letter four-letter word

Remember a while back I was saying “no, no, NO” to doing a workshop? The power of N-O. Begone, workshop, from my presence!! All good stuff. I gave myself permission to take care of myself, instead of trying to please someone else. Totally appropriate, and perfect for where I was at that moment.

Here’s the next chapter in that adventure. A little backstory: My husband’s job was reclassed, meaning that the entire scope of his position in the department in which he works, changed. Oops, not a good fit any more! He is a valued contributor, so the company wants to keep employing him. Unfortunately, this time of year positions that suit his particular talents are still in planning stages. Lots of potential, just not right now. So, since he’s got quite a bit of time in on the job, he’s taking a sabbatical. No money, but he’s still an employee and maintains his seniority, vacation, and pay level. The idea is that jobs will be opening up in a month or three/four/five, and one of them will be perfect for him. This is a rather long-winded way of saying that at the moment, we’re living on savings and one paycheck.

Since our belts have by necessity tightened up a little bit, I offered to miss my next CORE to save the airfare to Denver, if it came to that. Every dollar counts.

Then I reflected a little. I had some stock I could sell to come up with the airfare if need be; that would be easy. I was a little reluctant , though. What if we needed that money for something else, like hay for the horses, or some emergency repair? What else could I do?

Then it came to me (and since you are a smart audience, I’m sure you’ve been there for at least a paragraph or two).

I’ll do a one-day WORKSHOP.

Just like that, my mindset about workshops did a 180. This level of commitment is something I’ve grappled with forever – coming up with a solution that takes me out of my comfort zone, and could potentially fail. The easy out was to use money from stocks and deal with other expenses as they arose. The growth path is just stepping up and doing the darn workshop. It will be fun; we’re going to explore which “you” shows up at work (since we all have lots of roles and masks we put on and take off all day long), and then find out which “you” is looking for fulfilling work, the kind that has you jumping out of bed in the morning, raring to go. Is that “you” the same person who shows up at the office or warehouse or store? The horses are going to have a blast helping people discover their real “you”!

And me? I’ll have a blast doing the workshop!