Welcome to another #3NoMoreThan5, coming to you from my new space! I’m so excited after almost 2 and half years of construction, water damage, remodel, COVID and delays, I am home!
So, I’ve been getting settled in and I wanted to share with you something that I noticed about myself. While I was getting settled in, which was that although I got new floors, a fabulous new kitchen, new bathroom and even an office, I started to kind of nitpick on stuff! Like, “how come the floors aren’t perfectly lined up over there?” “How come the cabinets aren’t exactly closing perfectly?” “How come the shower head—“ I was like, wait a second. Why am I focusing on the nitpick things when I should be paying attention to the fact that I’ve got so much more counter space now! I’ve moved my stove from one side of the kitchen to the other, and I can actually have space to prep and cook and it works so much better! I have this amazing waterfall shower head that I didn’t have before! I have an office with a floating desk and I just have this space to work that I didn’t have before!
I was thinking about this as I was talking to friends (and perhaps you) who are all headed back into the work environments, and it was interesting to see how human nature tends to bring us down the road of what’s wrong. How do I focus on the things that are wrong versus focusing on all the good that comes with new, with change, with evolution.
So in this #3NoMoreThan5, I want to encourage all of you to enjoy your new space! I know it can be awkward to move to a new building. You don’t know where you belong, maybe the bathrooms are in a different spot or maybe the break room is way down at the end of the hall, but you know what? It’s new! You might actually meet new people, build new relationships, find mentors and exceed your expectations in terms of your performance because of this new environment.
Embrace the fact that you can now find other ways to do things. Maybe you used to go to and from home and work and the door was right by your desk so you never engaged with other people. Here’s your chance to do that. Here’s your opportunity to learn from others. Here’s your opportunity to reinvent yourself! When there’s something new, you can go in there and make some great choices about how to make the most of this new environment, this situation. You can choose to be mired in discomfort should you choose to focus on, like I did for 2 seconds, the fact that the floors don’t perfectly line up with the walls in some spots. But that’s going to take away you being the best you can be in this new environment and to be able to enjoy being back in your workplace.
After so many years of being isolated, even though you may not be there everyday, here is your chance to take advantage of an opportunity. I was talking to a gentleman this week through an organization I joined called Lunch Club, and he said, “You know Mylene, I’ve lived around the world and with every city I’ve moved to I really love exploring. Where can I go? How can I meet new people? What are the things that I can do to make this place home? As you adapt to your new workplace, as I adapt to my new home, focus on the stuff that’s great. Focus on the things you can explore. Focus on the good that can come from that, so you can be the best contributor, the best teammate you can be.
So until next time, perhaps from here, perhaps from the wild, have a great rest of your day or week! And remember, don’t be afraid of the change, embrace it! For #3NoMoreThan5, it’s me signing off! Until next time, cheers!