Saturday, March 21, 2020
“Don’t touch my six pack.” My seven-year-old, Mika, just said those words to her adult sister, Megan. They have completed their third round of spontaneous exercise breaks. Mika was playing with her toys and Megan was using the family computer as I worked from my computer. Megan hops up every 20 minutes or so and she and Mika do a quick exercise. The first round of spontaneous exercise was 25 jumping jacks.
When Megan hopped up for the second round of spontaneous exercise, she told Mika, “Pick a number and an exercise.” Mika picked 30 pushups. Ah, the foolishness of youth. Mika barely bends her elbows for pushups, so they could be called rockers. Megan bends down to chest parallel with elbows and then rises, so I think they should be called dips. I told them when I exercised, back in the stone age, we started pushups on the floor. All the way up, all the way down. My parents probably did pushups with one hand and my grandparents probably did pushups with rocks on their backs.
The third round of spontaneous exercise was 10 mountain climbers, and now that I am about to wrap up writing about them, round four is 15 sit-ups. The girls needed to pause after four sit-ups because our big dog kept trying oi lick Megan in the face. When they finished sit-ups, Mika said that was the hardest exercise so far and went outside to play. Spontaneous exercise could be a fun coronavirus bonding experience for them since Megan has been laid off from two of her three jobs and has more free time.
I was getting ready to write about one of my clients when Mika’s sentence caught my fingers. I got up today to find an email with an attached article my client and I had discussed she write. My client sometimes has difficulty deciding where to start a project, and the subject was time sensitive, so I told her I would write a draft and then she could rewrite it in her words. I wrote a page of five tips and sent it to her last weekend.
I did not try to write like my client does when I wrote the article, I did not even try to write like I do, I wanted words on the page to give her a place to start. I imagine she opened my file, read it, and thought, “This is not what I would say at all!” Her next thought was probably, “How would I say it?” She said it in three pages instead of one, and it does not look like what I sent her at all. She did use two of my sentences in her article and I thought, “Woo hoo! I wrote those.”
My client called me yesterday to let me know the article was finished and being proofread, and to tell me of an idea she had of another way to use the article in her business. It was a great idea. This morning, as I read the article, I had another idea for a different way to use her article in her business. I sent an email asking her to call me today, so I could explain it to her. She said she had the same idea, and then laughed and said, “You notice I did not mention it.” I laughed too because my idea is related to another project she is having difficulty deciding where to start. We will be working on both the related projects next week.
We were able to make all this progress because I recognized my client’s weakness, and then acted. I understand how hard it is to start from a blank page, so none of my journal pages are blank when I open them. I have the month and year on the top and “My piece of advice to you is to” at the bottom. Those few words make a big difference. Removing the blank page is what I did for my client. I sent her a full page and told her to make it better. She made that page so much better because that is her strength.
My piece of advice to you is to acknowledge your weaknesses and embrace your strengths. My client hired me to look for her weaknesses and find a way to compensate, whether that be me doing work she is not good at or me telling her where to start her project. We all have strengths and weaknesses, and for some reason, most people wallow in their weaknesses instead of shining a spotlight on their strengths.
Until next time,
Susanne
Please check out my GoFundMe page.
“Don’t touch my six pack.” My seven-year-old, Mika, just said those words to her adult sister, Megan. They have completed their third round of spontaneous exercise breaks. Mika was playing with her toys and Megan was using the family computer as I worked from my computer. Megan hops up every 20 minutes or so and she and Mika do a quick exercise. The first round of spontaneous exercise was 25 jumping jacks.
When Megan hopped up for the second round of spontaneous exercise, she told Mika, “Pick a number and an exercise.” Mika picked 30 pushups. Ah, the foolishness of youth. Mika barely bends her elbows for pushups, so they could be called rockers. Megan bends down to chest parallel with elbows and then rises, so I think they should be called dips. I told them when I exercised, back in the stone age, we started pushups on the floor. All the way up, all the way down. My parents probably did pushups with one hand and my grandparents probably did pushups with rocks on their backs.
The third round of spontaneous exercise was 10 mountain climbers, and now that I am about to wrap up writing about them, round four is 15 sit-ups. The girls needed to pause after four sit-ups because our big dog kept trying oi lick Megan in the face. When they finished sit-ups, Mika said that was the hardest exercise so far and went outside to play. Spontaneous exercise could be a fun coronavirus bonding experience for them since Megan has been laid off from two of her three jobs and has more free time.
I was getting ready to write about one of my clients when Mika’s sentence caught my fingers. I got up today to find an email with an attached article my client and I had discussed she write. My client sometimes has difficulty deciding where to start a project, and the subject was time sensitive, so I told her I would write a draft and then she could rewrite it in her words. I wrote a page of five tips and sent it to her last weekend.
I did not try to write like my client does when I wrote the article, I did not even try to write like I do, I wanted words on the page to give her a place to start. I imagine she opened my file, read it, and thought, “This is not what I would say at all!” Her next thought was probably, “How would I say it?” She said it in three pages instead of one, and it does not look like what I sent her at all. She did use two of my sentences in her article and I thought, “Woo hoo! I wrote those.”
My client called me yesterday to let me know the article was finished and being proofread, and to tell me of an idea she had of another way to use the article in her business. It was a great idea. This morning, as I read the article, I had another idea for a different way to use her article in her business. I sent an email asking her to call me today, so I could explain it to her. She said she had the same idea, and then laughed and said, “You notice I did not mention it.” I laughed too because my idea is related to another project she is having difficulty deciding where to start. We will be working on both the related projects next week.
We were able to make all this progress because I recognized my client’s weakness, and then acted. I understand how hard it is to start from a blank page, so none of my journal pages are blank when I open them. I have the month and year on the top and “My piece of advice to you is to” at the bottom. Those few words make a big difference. Removing the blank page is what I did for my client. I sent her a full page and told her to make it better. She made that page so much better because that is her strength.
My piece of advice to you is to acknowledge your weaknesses and embrace your strengths. My client hired me to look for her weaknesses and find a way to compensate, whether that be me doing work she is not good at or me telling her where to start her project. We all have strengths and weaknesses, and for some reason, most people wallow in their weaknesses instead of shining a spotlight on their strengths.
Until next time,
Susanne
Please check out my GoFundMe page.