Focus

I wrote a couple weeks ago about how I am making a more conscious effort to focus on things, rather than having 20+ projects going on at one time. This has been a little difficult right off the bat because I already had a ton of projects I was in the middle of, but I've forced myself (with a lot of help from Dan) to tackle things more fully before working on something else. Which is why the bathroom painting did not happen last weekend (sorry Mom), regardless of how badly I wanted it to. Instead, I've been putting most of my free time at home into working in our office, which we completely rearranged thanks to my beautiful chair showing up and my insisting it be set up NOW instead of kept in the basement waiting for our non-existent baby to need a good rocking to sleep. It's just as amazing as I expected it to be, and I'm looking forward to curling up with a book just as soon as I finish a few other projects around here. The new furniture arrangement in the office really opened the entire room up, and there's a lot more wall space now which is in desperate need of some artwork. I have lots of posters, patterned papers and random frames sitting around with nowhere to go so I'm definitely planning to work with what I've got to add some flair to the walls. And then, I promise I will share some 'after' photos of the room here!

And speaking of focusing, I've worked really hard in the last few weeks to combat the bit of "homesickness" that I've been feeling for my old job and to fully focus on how awesome and incredible my new job is. I've gone out of my way to strike up conversations with people I hadn't really talked to before, taken any chance I've gotten to grab lunch with a coworker, and pushed myself to work towards really excelling in my new position. If I'm being honest, I had some doubts in the beginning about my decision to leave my old job, and that all came crashing back big time last week when I heard that another girl from my old department that had left about a year before me was heading back. My heart ached for my old team and how much fun we used to have, and I had a bit of a panic attack I was so upset about it. And then I remembered that I made my decision to leave for a reason (several, actually). I was not happy very often in my previous position for the last several months before I left. I worked until a different time every day and never knew when I would be home in the evenings and the lack of consistency was killing me. I couldn't focus well because as fun as the culture was, it wasn't an environment I could excel in anymore. Quite the contrary  at my new job - People are so incredibly passionate about what we do... but they do their work and then they GO HOME (at the same time every day!) and work is left behind until the next morning. I feel like I am in a position where I can really make an impact and help with leading our design team into bigger and better things in the coming years. I look forward to going in every day and I'm not stressed about getting there or being there. It's turned into an easy routine getting up earlier, leaving earlier, and even dressing a whole lot nicer than I used to. Basically, I feel like I've done a really really incredible 180 in my professional life in the last couple of months, and I am so incredibly grateful for it all.

I know I've said this a million times lately, but as I fully settle into my new routine I really and truly do hope I can get back into blogging much more regularly again! For those of you still checking in, thanks for continuing to read along as I figure it all out.