While out on my run this evening, I was suddenly engulfed by the awesome smell of… jasmine. It’s one of my favourite smells! Together with the sun which is setting later in the evening and the warm days, Spring is definitely in the air. I ran the rest of the way home clutching my piece of jasmine with the biggest smile on my face! Best. Run. Ever.
It’s mid-term appraisal time in my office and I’m pleased to say that my discussion with my boss went well.
Nowadays you get an app for almost anything so a part of me wishes that appraisals could rather be done via an app in a similar way in which runners track their running performance via Strava.
What Strava does is take all the info recorded on my Garmin running watch and presents it in fancy graphs with an analysis of all runs, times, distances etc. You can’t fool the analysis. My Garmin knows when I have struggled up the nasty uphills. My Garmin knows when I have hit those down hills and managed to speed up. It is also able to track my distances accurately to the last meter and display it on a map.
There’s no bullshitting involved. What you see is what you get; measurable and exact.
On Strava I can’t get away with boasting inaccurate pace times or falsifying PBs (personal bests) because it’s all documented and open for all to see. It’s also a very clear indication of when I slack off and don’t run.
An app would assist my boss to track team performance every month – the highs and the lows; projects completed, times when staff members have gone the extra mile and the impact of stress in the office on attitude and morale.
By far the greatest benefit of the app would be during appraisal times when majority of staff feel that scores and ratings are largely based on people’s perceptions instead of real measurement. It would be a far more accurate and fair comparison of everyone’s performance.
It’s just a thought running through my head…
I’m disappointed.
I’ve been going through some real ups and downs at work in the past few weeks. Moments where it has felt as if things were all coming together, only to be faced with everything falling apart. It’s left me in a nasty dip. I’ve been walking around the office feeling lost, feeling extremely let down and pretty miserable to be around. I’m highly irritated with myself that I was mentally prepared for change and the change did not come and now I don’t know which way to turn…
Chatting to KK about it, he reminded me that he’s seen this happen before. Periods in my work life where I have been forced to make decisions based on a number of factors. He said, “Things do come right. They always do, but maybe just not when you expect them to.”
I guess the one lesson I’m learning from this experience is how I deal with situations that don’t go my way. I don’t deal with disappointment well. I let it overwhelm me and look to blame others. Nobody is at fault here. Things just didn’t pan out as I thought they would. It’s really up to me now to decide: do I look for a new path or just stick to the old one and wait? Going through some photos recently, I came across this one…
While on holiday in April, KK and I decided to go for a walk through Cecilia forest in Cape Town and chose the hiker’s path through the forest. After 2 hours, we landed up getting lost. We really did not know whether or not to continue on the hiker’s path, which was full of climbs and unexpected turns, or to just find the path that everyone else was on and stick to it. Regardless of the path, I enjoyed the beautiful scenery. It didn’t really matter to me that we did not quite know where we were because I was having fun.
This is what I’ve come to realize about my current situation. I’m more focused on the disappointment than on what’s next on the horizon.Why am I letting this bad patch bring me down? Things happen for a reason. I need to stop sulking and start enjoying the journey. “Build a bridge Bron and get over it!”
I had 2 hours and 4 minutes to myself during Sunday morning’s 15 km Colgate running race and during this time, two topics crossed my mind: the pair of skinny jeans I had purchased the day before and the YOU magazine cover featuring Kate vs. Kim.
Trying to find a new pair of jeans on Saturday had put me in such a bad mood. I could only find jeans that were either skinny or bootleg. Nothing in-between. In my mind, this means that you are either fat or thin. There’s no middle ground. I consider my body to be more of an in-between kinda shape. I resent the name ‘skinny’ for an item of clothing! It’s no wonder women have such issues about their bodies.
To that point, the second issue is with YOU magazine. Last week’s cover page is shocking. 
To compare two very different pregnant women’s bodies using the wording waif vs. whale is disgusting. Love her or hate her but I feel sorry that so much negative attention has been focused on Kim Kardashian’s body. Why do women not stand up and support one another? Then again, it is the YOU.
The ironic thing is that as I thought about these issues, I looked around. The female runners passing me during the race where either thin or large. Some of them were tall, others were short. Each had a very different but uniquely shaped body. More importantly, all of them were strong, fit, healthy and beautiful! Trust me, there’s something to be said for running next to a chubby woman pushing a pram for 15kms and not being able to keep up!
These are the inspiring stories we need to be focused on as women. Regardless of the size of our bodies, majority of women are great role models. We should not be defined by the name given to a style of jeans or what a trashy tabloid considers acceptable.
Keeping up with the Walkers... 