A Note of Thanks

I like to pretend I'm perfect. I'm actually quite good at hiding my unorganized, not-detail-oriented and spacey personality under layers of to-do lists, self-help articles and processes that double check me (watch for my forthcoming ode to spell check). I'm not sure where this perfectionism comes from. My boss understands when mistakes happen. My parents let me fail a few (hundred) times. I have found that I'm better at embracing my foibles now than I was even a few years ago. So maybe perfectionism erodes like my youthful glow and size 8 pants. Despite my layers and processes and perfected wheels-turning-so-please-don't-ask-me-a-question facial expression, I sometimes let my alter ego show. A forgotten attachment here. A misremembered fact there. If I'm lucky, I can keep it internal and just chalk it up to another reason not to kick the caffeine addiction just yet. By the time I launch a new training course, I've spent dozens of hours staring at the...

For the first time in the long time, I struggled to write my thank you note this week. Sometimes I need to review my calendar for the past few days to nudge my colander-like brain because there is always someone to thank. Always someone who has gone out of their way to help, or just is awesome and needs to be reminded. This week I struggled because there wasn't one big thing. There were so many little things. So many people who didn't have to be asked twice. People who responded quickly. People who didn't hesitate to lend a hand or offer their advice. It's so easy to take these small acts of kindness for granted, in others and in ourselves. The person who holds the door so you don't have to dig for your key card. The person who brings a cart so you don't have to haul all the crap you've accumulated at your desk over the past two years box-by-box to your new cube down the hall. The person who didn't laugh (out loud) when you accidentally ran the c...