Day 10: A time for reassessments and redirection

“So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:16-17) 

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07.15 AM - The tough task to break a bad habit

This morning I still could not wake up as early as I wanted to. I guess, after a year of falling into a habit of oversleeping, you need to be more willful to change and break the bad habit. My previous direct supervisor, now a director where I work, once told me that anything you manage to do 21 times consecutively will become a habit.

Now, how to force myself to wake up at 6 AM in the morning for the next 21 days without a break? A wise man once said: “How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep?” Well, starting tomorrow no delay no excuse. It’s a resolution.

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05:30 PM - Another new beginning

I remember the day Brad Pitt finalized his divorce with Jennifer Aniston. He was asked many speculative questions regarding his relationship with Angelina Jolie, but he said simply: “It’s a shake up year, a year for redirection…

Well, I am not going through a divorce, of course. But, my life has also been shaken up for the past year. Things that I used to think I knew about myself and my life are now left as open questions. I feel I need to restart learning about myself, reassess what I thought I wanted in life and whether I really knew what I wanted, and redirect my life to reflect my true self just as GOD wants me to be.

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07:00 PM - Early test

I got an early test on what I just learned in the past 10 days. My boss called me to speak about a problem encountered by our user, a classic one which, unfortunately we will not be able to solve without professional technical help (and that will cost a lot of money). Since the problem is intermittent, rarely occurs, and the system is a legacy system that we are planning to phase out, the management direction is not to spend anything. Really, there are no suitable workaround. So, I honestly told the user that unfortunately there was no solution. I thought they understood after the many times I explained to them. Hours then passed….

It turned out that the user informed my boss and made it look or sound like I was not trying to help them at all. Same ol’ story. Why do people love to blow things out of proportion to get sympathy and get people sided with them? Well, I stood my ground and I believed I was not wrong. I was being honest. There are workarounds to the problem that we can try. But, I had analyzed them before and I know it will not really help.

One thing is I will not feel guilty about this. I believe I have done and said nothing wrong. I am sorry I cannot help, but I am not sorry for being honest.

Sigh. Now, I need to learn new skill: How to break bad news honestly but charmingly via email? Anybody knows? Please, tell me.

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