Settling in

I started this blog because I really just needed to get some of my thoughts in order. I was having a really hard time, feeling like working from home was just not the right fit for me. In just writing that post, however, I stopped and realized how lucky I am to be able to work from home, especially while my kids are so young. I was struggling a lot transforming myself from the Type A go-getter and being happy with my role at work.

Since then, I really feel like I've begun to accept where I am a little more. Maybe it's the change in the seasons--I see a busy fall/winter ahead of me with the holidays and I'm hesitant to take on any large new projects. Maybe it's because there is a lot of churn at work at the moment, and I'm just sitting back, waiting to see what falls out.

Here's what has changed, besides my attitude, since I've decided to "settle in".


One of the things I have resented about working from home is that everyone assumes I'm off doing personal things during the day. But why should that annoy me? Why shouldn't I embrace it? My boss has specifically communicated to all of his team that, as long as we get our work done, he's not concerned about how it gets done. So what if I take 30 minutes off in the middle of the day to do some cleaning? It doesn't take away from my work and it makes our evenings / weekends run a bit more smoothly.

Another thing in general is that I've been working to accept that I just can't fix everything today. I think it helps that work in general is in flux for this one. There are a lot of changes going on that are not being driven by me, so I can just sit back and watch and support where necessary. But I don't have to be the one driving the change and the ideas for a few months, which is a relief. And probably helps with that creeping feeling of burnout that I had.

Finally, I'm looking a bit more short-term. I have lots of long term plans and ideas: how to get from here to retirement, how we're going to pay off the house, what I want my next career to be. My blind spot is often the short-term. So I'm working a bit on just being happy in the now, trusting that we've built a good foundation to weather anything that comes our way.

So I'm settling in. Is this a permanent change? Probably not. But I'm focusing on today and the next few months, and I'm feeling better about where things are.