Tuesday, September 20, 2011

The Spaghetti Chronicles


As I sat down to eat my dinner tonight, a thought occurred to me. Do I ever eat anything other than plain spaghetti with butter and Parmesan? This is my favorite dish, it's easy for me to make, and I know exactly how I like it. Will I ever branch out and try something new? Maybe I can do some fettuccine alfredo, or some chicken carbonara. I could even try putting shrimp or seafood in it. Alas, I keep coming back to the same thing, something I'm good at.
 
This got me thinking about my work life. Don't ask how on earth I made a connection with work and spaghetti, I don't get it either. But it brings me to...
 
Lesson #4, branch out and try new things.
 
I'll tell you something about myself. I'm a very meticulously organized  person. I run a small business on the side doing personal organizing, where I go in and organize closets, file cabinets, clutter, basically anything that's messy. So of course, I was at work the other day and I was perfectly content sitting next to my best friend the file cabinet organizing the files. So as I sit here and make spaghetti, I realize that I need to branch out and try new things. It's good for a little while to show your boss what you're good at, and that you enjoy doing what you're good at, but sometimes you need to step out of your comfort zone. If you can make accomplishments in a field where you don't normally venture, you are sure to impress your boss with a wide array of skills you didn't even know you had. Plus it will show them your versatility and they might even offer you more responsibilities.
 
Today, instead of organizing the file cabinet, I stepped out of bounds a little bit and did some facebook page maintenance and some blog maintenance. Not exactly rocket science for me, but I've never kept a corporate facebook page or a corporate blog before, so it was interesting to offer my 20 year old facebook opinion.
 
So the lesson today is branch out a little bit. Take on some responsibilities that aren't in your comfort zone, and if you make mistakes it's ok. That is how we learn. If you're doing the same thing you always do there's not as much of a learning process involved. Of course, as I write this, I have managed to mess up classic Courtney spaghetti, so the lesson to be learned there is...(Now I'm starting to sound like a fortune cookie.)...
 
Lesson #5, don't get too comfortable, you'll overlook something.