Embracing my inner "Oh, yeah?!? Bring it!"

There are times that I truly question my sanity. Somewhere inside me there is a creature that sees every challenge as another attempt to tell me "no", question my abilities, insult my intelligence, or some such other silliness. Obviously, these challenges do not know me very well. I am, as a quote on my mirror used to say, "the most persistent traveler down any path that is NOT the path of least resistance". I will see your silly challenge and I will personally smack it down! Yeah, I know. Not the prescription for an easy life - or one that ensures that I get plenty of sleep, even - but it sure is interesting!

I have two challenges that are trying to insult my abilities at the moment. One is, of course, the job. As part of the eventual transition out of the corporate world, my current position has been posted so that we can hire someone more local to the team that I've been supporting. However, my boss has also asked me to cover for 2 different vacant roles in his organization as well. So, at the moment, I have 3 jobs. This challenge I will not talk about much because it makes me tired just thinking about it. The last 2 days were pretty rough. It looks like things will clear up by Friday.

The more amusing challenge is purely self created, but definitely falls under the category of Lighten Up initiatives - quite literally! I am heading out to UK for 4 days of business with 2 full travel days on either end. I will then go straight to Louisiana for pre-wedding events and wedding festivities for a full 9 days. The challenge is this: can I manage all 3 legs of the trip (PHX-GTW, GTW-MSY, MSY - PHX) without checking a bag? It is going to be close, and will require a bit of creativity on my part, but at the moment, I'm thinking that it can be done. (I found it! Forward to about 1 minute and you can hear the Cat in the Hat song that always starts up in my head when I say it can be done.) So I'm spending some time figuring out, with some tips from the experts, exactly how to manage this. And I'm digging out every tiny travel size bottle and filling it with stuff I need. And I'm carefully considering how to do More with Less - which is also, incidentally, a great cook book!

And that last sentence (a clear example of Attention Splatter Syndrome) leads me right back to the opening statement of this post. You know - the one about questioning my sanity? Because it isn't as if I don't have enough externally imposed challenges on my life at the moment. And yet, I'm pursuing several lines of personal interest research that are also eating up time. Does this mean I'm crazy?

I've decided, based on the input of the wise and lovely PL, that adding my own personal challenges to my life is a good thing. Because if I'm going to be inundated, overwhelmed and stressed, I should at least be able to choose the sources of that feeling. In fact, I think the title of my first book will allude to the fact that stress is a force in the universe, just like gravity or momentum. "Conservation of Stress: It's not the law!" or maybe just "You Can't Make Me!" or... yeah, I'm doing it again. Attention Splatter Syndrome.... So I'm off! Ya'll have fun!