Staying Home

With the day off today and no Johnnie, I always get confused as to what to do. After all, you can't really go anywhere can you? I was almost going to spend my morning staying in line at the DMV to try to get a copy of my renewed driver's license which they never mailed out. Or I was racking my brain thinking of other errands I should be running. That's how I want to spend my day off? Running errands? I was almost out the door to grab a Starbucks breakfast before heading out to the DMV. But for some reason I had a different stirring. I figured that since it was already almost 9 AM, I thought I'd just make my own breakfast. Better to do that than to spend $8 at Starbucks right? And just to show you how THAT one decision changed my entire morning, what happened next was that I put some water on to boil for my tea and started to make myself an omelette. Spinach, onion and cheese was what I had in mind. Except that i saw the container of meatballs. OK, maybe I'll add one of those. Somehow or other I was heating something in the microwave and then it went bonkers. It wouldn't turn off. And so I tried to unplug it from its power source in the cupboard right over it. And in doing so, I knocked over a full jar of Prego spaghetti sauce. And the thing broke on the floor right at my feet, spaghetti sauce EVERYWHERE. There was such a huge mess I decided I'd eat my breakfast before I cleaned it up. So I made my omelette, made my tea and decided to find some peace while eating. After all, some degree of chaos must have been in my energy in order to affect this turn of events. Only when I finished eating did I start to clean up the Prego mess. And after I picked up every last piece of broken glass and mopped up every drop of pasta sauce I decided I wasn't going to line up at the DMV after all.  I decided it would be more beneficial to make sure whatever chaos and negative energy was on the surface of my attention was what I needed to clear. And that's what I needed to do with my day. And so I did.

The video I posted above was about finding your purpose in just a few minutes. And it entailed asking 5 questions: Who am I? What do I do? Who do I do it for? What do they want or need? How do they change as a result?. It sounds simple just to answer the questions. And when I answered them, here's what I get: I am Arnel. I solve problems with technology. I do it for the people who work in my company. They need help. I help them do their jobs. Sounds simple... until I realized it could be applied to much more than just my company. And I think there is where the problem is with me... In reflection, all those answers have a limited scope. My company, the work universe. How do I expect to help as many people as I can if I'm only thinking about my work life? And so I am going to make one adjustment. And that is to expand my audience. What if I tried to help everyone who needs help? And what if it was not just technology? I mean look at what Vishen Lakshani did with MindValley? So NOW how would my purpose statement sound like? I am Arnel. I help people by solving problems with technology and information. I do it for those that need information. With this information, people can be the best version of themselves. And so I help people be the best version of themselves. Now THAT's PURPOSE.

Lisa called in the afternoon asking for help watching Johnnie while she practiced piano since she now has a class on Monday. And pitched dinner. Of course I'm the one bringing the roasted chicken courtesy of Ralphs. She's making green beans.  Hey all I wanted to do was spend time with my Little Bug. And so I did. We all had dinner in the patio, which was nice for a late summer evening *or is it early fall?* Of course I had to wash dishes, just so Lisa could spend as much time as possible practicing.  She played the piano while Johnnie and I... well we watched more Jurassic Park Camp Cretacious. So simple with that kid. I figured Lisa would go more than an hour so I took it upon myself to do Johnnie's bedtime routine. Made him some hot chocolate and then gave him a bath. And so when Lisa finally got out of her room, more than 2 hours later, Johnnie was already bed ready.  And for a Friday night I was still able to go home, grab a couple of tacos from Taco Bell. Yep, I was still hungry after that dinner. And so I went home put my feet up and watched me some Netflix. Now I can have my typical Friday night. I didn't have an extraordinary vacation day off today. Pretty boring and I really didn't do anything different. But I didn't think about work. After all, I did discover that I need to expand my focus about that don't I. Now to work on the how...