I love the 'Life is Good' company. I have a book full of their quotes and pictures that I keep in my office. (Great little book which you can buy used on Amazon for as low as 93 cents)A week or two ago, one of our student employees decided to do some re-decorating of my office, as pictured here, and left a note with a quote from the book- 'Blur the line between work and play'. Love it. It's pretty much all about optimism, and I try to be an optimistic person. Anyway, as we wrap up this year and head to the next, I thought I would use 11 quotes from the book to reflect on the year we are leaving, and use 11 to look ahead to the next year.
"Everything is a once in a lifetime experience."
I love having the opportunity to be back in Jersey, at my alma mater, and closer to my family. But it was reeeeaaally hard for us to leave Michigan. In my gut, I feel like we will be back in the Mitten when we're ready to officially 'settle down'. But coming back to Rowan was possibly a once in a lifetime experience. I realize I am blessed to be working where my career started as a 19-year-old flag football official.
Run like a dog."
I ran over 500 miles this past year, mostly thanks to the marathon and training. But a good amount aside from that as well. It's been fun, and it is an awesome feeling that I won't be over 200 pounds for the first time on New Years Day in probably 5 years.
The road to a friend's house is never long."
I think I meant to put this in the blog about next year, but we'll leave it here just because I already typed it. Anyway, I want to make sure I do a better job of staying in touch with friends. I use this blog to help do that, but need to go out of my way to specifically be in touch with friends and family both. The road to a friend may actually be pretty long, but these days it's easy to stay in touch with email, phone, facebook, whatever.
"Keep growing."
I got some great advice from my old boss Stan a few years ago. I was in a position at work where I was very comfortable with my main work duties, but there wasn't opportunity to move up in our department. So he encouraged me to grow 'out'. I got involved in more things around campus, took on some new responsibilities, and really grew a ton in my final year or two there. It's important to not get complacent, not just with work, but with life. Gotta keep challenging myself.
"Consider yourself a lucky dog."
I definitely do. Could things be better? Always. But could they be much worse? For sure. I am very fortunate and blessed in my life. My cousin Di wrote a recent blog entry about how she is fortunate in a lot of different ways, some of them as simple as having a roof over our heads, and a paycheck coming in. Even more so than just having a job, and having a family, I have ones that I actually like! A pretty awesome wife, two funny pets, good health... I am a lucky dog.
"Take your love everywhere you go."
Speaking of my awesome wife, I am incredibly thankful for her. With this move to NJ, we had to leave her home state and where all of her family is. I know it's tough to be away from family, and realize the sacrifice that she made in moving here. Even though I am home, I have been 'Michigan homesick' for some of my friends and things I got used to, having lived in that state for 7 of the past 12 years. But having my wife with me is pretty awesome. (not that coming here without her was an option, but you get the point.)
"The work will teach you how to do it."
Taking this new job was somewhat of a gamble. I had been doing Intramurals for a long time, and had only limited experience with Sport Clubs, and was coming to a new position at a school I had only been as an undergrad. But I never really worried too much about it. Just have to be confident that to some degree 'the work will teach you how to do it". Do I know it all now that I have a semester under my belt? Heck no. But I'm learning. And I am learning from my mistakes, as well as my successes.
"Write on."
I did a lot of blogging this year, and hope to do a lot next year. It is definitely a hobby, something I enjoy, but also a nice therapeutic outlet for me. I hope I can continue to keep up at the pace I did this year, and maybe even crack 100 blog entries in 2012, which would be the most ever in one year for me. We'll see!
"Blur the line between work and play."
Love this one. Again, I am blessed to work around sports and work with college students. The nature of the job makes it easier than most to have fun at work. Still, it could be easy to not have fun at work. But what fun would that be? Gotta have fun. Gotta laugh a little. At yourself sometimes too. Or at students who think they are funny when they rearrange everything in your office. I'll get revenge, Kimba.
"The little things in life are the big things."
You have to celebrate life's small successes, and not get TOO caught up in the big picture. Easier said than done, but you have to take time and smell the roses, enjoy the 'little things'. I was logging onto our bank account the other day, and one of the security questions we set up had to do with ice cream. I don't know how exactly that ties in here, but it was/is something that made me laugh, and went back to a little thing in life that I really enjoyed.
"Remember where you came from."
Those goes with staying in touch, but not only with friends, but with family, and just with your roots. I've lived in a number of places now, worked at a few different places, so I feel like I 'came from' a bunch of different places, though my hometown and roots will always be MPNJ. Who I am today is a culmination of all the places I have lived, people I have learned from, and experiences I have had, so I am just trying to learn from it all, remember it all, good and bad, and let it shape who I am today.
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That's all I've got in this round of LIG. Hope it didn't sound too corny. It's a good book, with very simple messages, but some that we sometimes lose sight of. Anyway, everyone can use a little optimism, right?
Here's a video of my favorite dancing cartoon characters, but to a different song. Hilarious.
Slainte,
Gary
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