Yesterday was a bit tough. Two hours in the car with the dogs. It was hot, they got over excited, spilled water and drooled. But that was just part of the journey. It would not have been two years ago. It would have been a fight with my husband.
I would have put us on a schedule and freaked out when we didn’t leave on time. I would have been upset about the dogs being so hot and the drool. I also would have insisted on driving. Instead, I did this my husband’s way, which involved me riding in the back seat with the dogs in the trunk area so I could keep an eye on them. In exchange, hubby gladly played the license plate game with me (31 states, including Alaska!).
What is the difference? This journey with emotional intelligence and leadership I went through. Last I left off, we had just had our first class on hiring/firing that was extremely helpful.
Next was a series of long forums on Saturdays. Yes, 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning, in downtown Chicago in River North. I used to hang out in River North in my 20s, and usually when the sun was up in River North I only saw it as I was getting in the car to go home. But here I was at 7 a.m. meeting with complete strangers.
And not only was I meeting strangers and spending the day with them, I also had to share my life line which entailed plotting your life with major events, and rating your happiness scale from 1-10 at those times. It was a hard exercise to do personally as it made me relive some very painful moments. I, and others, cried as we told their stories. Some were heartbreaking. After a long day, we bonded as a group. The group was made up of all the co-founders or number twos in the companies in our cohort. They mostly had my mindset of an integrator, like myself.
This was my group for the next nine months. My therapy group as I used to call it. I finally realized I was not the only one. They were all having similar problems to me. It was amazing and I finally had an opportunity to talk to people that understood and give me feedback, e.g. shared experiences.
We would meet about every three weeks, and I looked forward to every meeting. This forum gave me the opportunity to learn new listening skills as well. This is was started taking me to the next level.
Jen's Journey 