Notice I didn't say "if I make things smooth for me".
The more difficult the challenge, the more I like the job. I like puzzles, I like piecing things together, and I love it when someone throws me a curve ball mid-stream. I thrive on that environment, however, not everyone does. There are a small handful of people in my office who's jobs it is to take a jumbled mess of a puzzle and lay it out so that our team can come in and complete it without losing their minds. I love that and if it were already laid out for me, I would have probably grown bored with things years ago.
Let's pause for a moment to give me a chance to say that I DO not like this atmosphere in my personal life. I like order, I like ease and I like smooth the moment I step foot in my front door. It would be easy to pull out the pocket psychologist and retort that this is clearly a result of constantly using brain things while in the office, but that just isn't true. I've always preferred a calm home and I haven't always worked in crazy town.
Crazy in the office gives me something to solve, crazy in a home causes me to break down.
I've thought about this a lot lately, especially as I start to face a time in my career where I'll start to see a huge shift from daily front line activity to more of a planning from a birds eye view role. Why do I love the chaos I work with at work but hate it at home? Is it because I like the outcome at work? Recognition? Realization of a job well done? An entire team working harmoniously because I've helped them to bring order to things? At home, who sees that? The Schmoo Cat? The Sweet Boy who already tells me how wonderful I am on a regular basis? I'm not sure.
Perhaps it's a classic "If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound" situation.
What are some areas in your life that are as different as night and day but you thrive well in both scenarios? I'd love to hear what make all of my readers tick.
