Let's Move

I hardly ever talk about work here. Ever. I talk about writing. But that's not work. That's love. 

But tonight, let's talk shop. Apple style. 

In the Apple, a job can kill. Honest to goodness. Only here have I heard the phrase, "heart attack job." You get it -- the stress,the stakes, the 24/7 of it all.  Sometimes, we forget why we came to this city in the first place: to succeed by doing what we love! 

I don't believe in success, in the sense that it doesn't just happen. I believe in calculated success. At some point, we have to pave our own way. If there are no hard decisions, if there are no crossroads, there can be no success. But it can be so easy to lose track of that and instead jump on the rat wheel of come what may -- a slow, painful crise cardiaque of the soul.

Over the past month and a half, as I've been shifting into a different role at work, I realized I was feeling some work/life "chest pains." What I felt I loved felt more like work - and not in the good way. As a successful woman who truly believes that you are your own CEO, I needed to make an executive decision. Fast. 

So I did. I chose my life and love over an opportunity that would have landed me an angioplasty before age 30.

And I am all the more happy for it. Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not slowing down. In fact, stepping off the nonsense wheel and stripping away the "busy work" has set me on a faster, more productive, path. The truth is: sometimes saying No to the things you don't want will make it easier to say Yes to the things you do. 

Besides my full-time work, I sealed two new project contracts that will challenge me in positive ways. I worked really hard to get them, and I'm glad to see my efforts pay off. Now the real work -- the work that matters to me -- starts. 

In the Apple, if you ain't movin, you're standing still.