Photo by Wonderlane on Unsplash
On my to-do list for weeks has been, “clean office.â€
Clean office has often been added to my list as an afterthought. This task has gotten much less attention than just about every other item on my list. After all, if the front lawn is not cut, you can see it. If clothes are not washed, my choices on what to wear to work become non-existent. And so, I keep rolling forward my plan to clean up my home office.
Even yesterday afternoon, when I could have taken just ½ an hour to clean up the office, I worked on other things.
I justified doing whatever else by thinking to myself, “oh, I have tomorrow morning to clean up the office.†And then the company showed up a day early. This is exciting and much appreciated. But now I am still keeping the door to my office closed, because I have still not cleaned it, nor organized it.
Heck, I haven’t even vacuumed in there for a week or two.
Right now, I am writing on my laptop, sitting at the kitchen table. I could be in my office, tossing things into the trash can, organizing wires, and giving the office a quick run over with the vacuum. Instead, I am sitting and writing.
At the moment, writing seems more important than cleaning.
Recently, I have been able to justify any activity versus cleaning. Working in my office, I see what needs to be done. And I see that by breaking the task up into smaller pieces, I could quickly make the office look organized enough that I could share it with others. But here I sit, pecking away at the keys.
I am wasting all of my good intentions right now.
Even as I say, the office is important, I am not showing that by my actions. Perhaps my thoughts about the condition of my office are different than my actual needs. Quite obviously, my actions show that this is true.
What am I to make of this?
My best guess is that it is my own personal “what would they say†feelings that are pushing me to clean the office. I am embarrassed to have anyone else see the condition of my office. It is my own attitude towards the condition of my office that is in question.
How then to I convince myself that “it is not about me?â€
Everyone else has their own “clean office†activities on their to-do list. I am not the only person on the planet that has things they keep putting off. Just because everyone is posting only their “best life†on Facebook, or TikTok, doesn’t mean they do not have things they are not doing.
In reality, every one of us has the need to show off our best self.
Even those who state that they are above mortal needs have things they want to work on. From monks to the neighbor next door, everyone has a side of themselves that they do not share with the world. Is “all about me” what I need to ask?
Am I being narcissistic when I think that I am the center of everyone’s attention?
I teach “it’s not about me†to my interviewing clients. From cover letter, to resume, to the face-to-face interview, I show my clients a different program. My goal is to have clients show how they can solve a future employer’s problem.
They first identify what the employer really needs, then they show how they can solve that problem.
Because they can solve the problem the company faces, they are seen as the best person to hire. Once we identify what the interviewer’s true problem is, the rest of the process is easy. The rest of the process is telling stories that show how you have solved similar problems in the past.
And these stories show a future employer that it “is not about me.â€
I teach this stuff all the time. Clients of mine win positions using this approach. They are quickly identified as the most qualified person for the position. Stories that they tell become justification they can use with their boss or staff, illustrating why they were chosen.
Ok, I teach “It’s not about youâ€, and I see it work successfully time after time.
But I am not brave enough to apply it to my own situation. Somehow, I think my stuff doesn’t stink and I am different than the rest of the world. While having a solid sense of your self-worth is important, taking it to extremes is not healthy.
Back to my office, seeing that my office is not about me is not as easy as it seems.
Well, for me it is not easy. My attitude towards the condition of my office dictates how I feel about it. What normally happens is my attitude controls how I feel about the condition of my office. Thus my “clean office†task keeps getting pushed to the bottom of the list.
Today, this morning, I am taking this activity, “clean office†to position number 1.
Once I have completed this project, I will let you know how hard it actually was. Walking down the hall to get started, I feel that it is not as bad as I thought it would be.
