Monday, May 9, 2011

Today's fortune: May 9, 2011

Today's fortune: It is quality rather than quantity that matters. Do a good job tomorrow.

Although I've been giving this fortune quite a bit of thought since I opened the cookie this morning, the fortune I really wish I had on my mind today was the zen-like message I received a couple weeks ago: "Today is a good time to take some extra relaxation."

I'm trying to put it in practice right now. But it's difficult, because the thing that happened to me at the end of the day is still bombarding my mind.

I was planning to leave the ol' widget factory at about 5 p.m. today. At 4:30, my phone rang. As a conscientious, customer service-oriented widget maker, I picked it up. I wish I hadn't.

I didn't hang up the call until nearly 5:30.

The caller was a woman who has been arguing about her widget for over a month now. Today, she kept me tied up for nearly an hour going over the same disagreements we've already been over a hundred times.

I don't want to get into the details; it would only make my head hurt.

And unfortunately, that very fact is killing my wife. I love my job, but I'm finding that sometimes I have a difficult time leaving everything at the office. Jamie sees that I bring stuff home, and she wants me to be able to talk about it. But I just can't. My mind doesn't work that way. It's not that I'm stuffing it down deep, creating an ulcer, but I try to just let things go. Talking about them makes that more difficult.

But two of the billions of reasons I love Jamie are that she wants to help me and she hates it when I'm in pain. Just know this, darling: I'm fine. You're always there when I need you. And when I need to talk, you'll be the only person I come to. I promise.

So I'm going to try my best to relaaaax this evening and let this stupid work bullshit go. Wish me luck.

Today's fortune comes at an interesting time. Just last week, I received the fortune "You will obtain your goal if you maintain your course," and in the post I wrote specifically about the issue of quality vs. quantity. What I determined was that quantity was winning out. I was able to handle all my widgets in a timely manner, but the quality of said widgets had suffered. In fact, the harsh light of reality shined through when I recieved a 16 percent score on a file audit.

At that point, I made a renewed commitment to focus on quality, even if that means quantity takes a hit. I'm going to make an extra effort to do a quality job tomorrow, as this fortune dictates. But my efforts have already paid off.

Today, another of my files was audited. The score?

One hundred percent.

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