Juggling It All

I've been exploring new interests and revisiting old interests.  Doing so has revived me and stimulated my spirit.  However, I'm starting to feel like I'm swinging too far in the opposite direction.  I'm trying not to solely focus on work, but have I added to much to my plate?  

I have a full-time job, and now go to school, I want to keep working out and eating right, would be nice to continuing drawing, I gotta make time for my family, friends and relationship.... not to mention the things I'd like to do on top of this.  Maybe I'm just an extremist and can't find a middle road.  Ok, I'll hold off on the quilting class... for now. 

Weight watching or not really watching at all

I mentioned that at one time in my life I was a Division 1 athlete.  I played basketball at Columbia University in New York.   I was a very fit person in those days.  We worked out 4 hours a day.  I would lift weights in the morning before class and then come back later that afternoon for practice.  When you work out that much in a day, you get to eat pretty much whatever you want.  Well, I should have been eating high energy foods but I ate whatever I wanted.  My metabolism was so high I had problems gaining weight as you can probably see to the right.  My coaches put me on weight gainers to try and "bulk" up a bit.  Nothing really worked, that is, until I graduated and stopped working out 4 hours a day.  The real problem was that I stopped working out 4 hours a day but kept eating "whatever I wanted".   Gaining a little bit of weight was ok with me.  I felt I was too thin in college.  I still worked out while I lived and worked in New York, 1 hour a day at least 3 days a week.  When I moved to Philly I stopped all physical activity, except the physical activity of chewing my food.  Once you get into the routine of not working out, even for 1 hour a day, it is a very hard routine to get back into.  As a former college athlete, you mentally feel like you are still that athlete.  Like you can pick up where you left off.  Since I was a college athlete 12 years went by and 45lbs came on.   Now that I've changed my focus to include balance I have made changes to correct this.  You will soon see how.

August 2010

I QUIT!  Yup, I said it and it felt good.  I said it without another job to fall back on.  After 5 years of dedication and lots of frustration I had had enough and gave my notice.  Now don't get me wrong, I handled it professionally and did full knowledge transfer but after those two weeks I walked out and had nothing lined up.  Was I crazy?  I mean we all know what is happening in the economy and unemployment.  I knew the dire situation more than others since I worked in the employment industry but it was like I had gotten to the end of my rope and chose my health over the job.  Good for me, right!  Right :/ ?  Well it ended up being the best thing I had done in a long time.  I took the next couple of weeks to go visit family and spend time with my sister, who was battling cancer (and I'm proud to say, SHE WON.. cancer free as of today).  This is where "Mission Rose" started.  Now that I had all this time, what should I do?  Well clearly search for a job, but how could I take advantage of this? What do I like to do or rather what did I like to do, even better, what would I like to do?  And that's when I started to focus on me a little more.

I always enjoyed drawing, self taught, something I did as a child.  I kept drawing as I was in high school and college but it was something I did in private, always in pencil or charcoal.  It was an escape for me but nothing I was comfortable sharing.  So while I was unemployed my girlfriend got me the greatest gift I had gotten in a while, she got me painting classes.  It was very intimidating but freeing.  I think there was always this part of me that didn't want to be judged.  This was something I enjoyed doing and I didn't want anyone to tell me I wasn't good at it.  It was a short 6 week class, 4 hours on a Sunday.  I learned how to paint with acrylic and water color and I am sharing my first water color attempt with you all.

Four Score and well, really just seven years ago...

So to understand why this blog is taking place, I am going to have to take you back about 7 years ago to the person I was.  I lived in New York City and worked in television.  The TV business can be a very stressful business.  I worked on live sporting events for a major network and it was my role to count us on and off the air, count in and out of commercial, count in and out of tape.. I was essentially a professional backwards counter.  The best part of the job was it stayed there.. at work. Once you were off the air.. you were off the air.  I would think about how I could do something better the next time or what I could try new to make the show flow more smoothly, but you were able to just go home and focus on you and your personal interests.  7 years ago, I worked out regularly, loved to draw, did a crossword whenever I could find one, would read new books and explored the city.  Soon I got to a point where I wanted to try something new, explore a new city, try a new career, so I moved to Philadelphia.  I switched my career from TV to business development with an IT recruiting company.   I knew nothing about business development nor recruiting.  Did I mention that a relationship also brought me to Philadelphia.. selective memory I suppose?  Well regardless, I did it.. made major changes in order to try something "new"and the what did I discover? CHANGE IS HARD! I knew nothing about business development nor recruiting and this company did not provide an extensive training program, I read a manual and was handed a phone.   I knew no one in Philadelphia and 5 months later.. that relationship.. yep, it ended.  Now what.. should I go back to NYC to what is familiar or stick it out?  Well clearly I stuck it out, but everything I did was focused around my new potential career.  Business development and recruiting can be a 24/7 business.  What new contacts can I find, what networking events should I attend, where can I find potential candidate for the positions I was bringing in.  I actually started doing well, was eventually promoted to run the branch, things were going well right?  Maybe to some, maybe in my career but for the next 5 years, that's all I did.  No more crosswords, no more working out, no more drawing.   And then it happens, August 2010.. Mission Rose begins.