The Pivot – My attempt of making a sports analogy

You know when you’re watching a football game and then you see a guy “get juked”? If you are like me and have no idea what “juked” is, do not worry, I googled it. 

According to Wikipedia, “Getting ‘Juked’ is a move in American Football used to evade the tackler without deception. 

In case we need a visual, I provided us some video content here as well just to make sure we get the point. 

So “juked”, we all get it now. Or at the very least I get it now, so I can pretend I know what I am talking about next football season.  

Watching someone do the “juking” looks dope. The receiver is quick on their feet, they don’t hesitate, they do a pivot dance thing, and then they are off to make a touchdown. Then when you watch the person who is getting “juked”, you feel bad. The person who caught the ball tricked them, they couldn’t follow their pivot dance and then they were left in the dust. The player is likely super embarrassed they are going to be on ESPN on Saturday morning for the worst juke of all time. Sports!

You’ve Lost Your Job During Coronavirus – Now What?

I was reading an article that stated as of April 10th around 16 million people filed for unemployment due to the coronavirus pandemic.

With the monster of uncertainty growing, and the coronavirus spreading, this number isn’t going to be going down any time soon. It’s one of the very sad, heart-wrenching realities that we are facing today. When I started hearing about people I knew who would be losing their jobs, their companies were going under, or they had to take a step back in pay, that’s when things started to hit me. It is never bad until they are right in your face, and punch you in the gut. 

I lost my first job out of college, so I know the feeling and experienced the reality of it, and it simply just sucks.

Right after college I was at an accounting firm and hated accounting so I transitioned over to their sales team. Looking back, I wasn’t being trained to get into sales but sales reporting. When the next leadership change occurred, as a non-revenue generating employee, I got the boot. 

 I knew it wasn’t work-performance related because I asked when they told me, but the shame, embarrassment, and devastation that followed were gut-wrenching. I didn’t know what to do, or how to move forward. 

Things were different then because I wasn’t a “real” adult with “real” expenses such as rent, groceries, and insurances. As an independent adult, if Dan or I were to lose our jobs it would be much more serious. I decided to create this blog as a reminder to both myself and friends to prepare for when that day comes. Below is a checklist and of what steps to take if you lose your job.

How To Clean Up Your Life

I don’t know about you guys, but nothing makes me want to clean up every aspect of my life more than coronavirus. Everything feels dirty and susceptible to disease, even if I just lysoled my whole life, including my actual self like I lysol sprayed my hands once… not kidding.

Spring cleaning, and washing away the germs, and all bad things away is an absolute must in my household this season.

But of course, me being me, I am looking at, “cleaning up your life” from an all-encompassing view. How can I clean up my physical environment, my mental environment, and my inner environment, aka my gut. Because if you think about it, this virus didn’t just affect our physical bodies, but it affected our homes by not leaving them and our minds from being both stressed and scared.

It all needs a refresh and a cleanout. So let’s get to it.

April Meal Of The Month

I LOVE cooking. Mostly because I love eating and I really appreciate a well done, cooked homemade meal. There is nothing like it.  I grew up on home-cooked meals and would love how in each season our meals changed. For the most part, we ate seasonally. Whatever fruits and vegetables were in abundance and local at that time of the year, they were on our dinner plate.  

When I think of April, I think of the beginning of fresh and lighter meals.  It’s getting warmer out, and we are getting outside more, and have a little bit of a spring in our step, no pun intended. 😉   Some of the foods that first come to mind when I think of the spring season are asparagus, peas, and artichokes. 

The recipe below was inspired by my friend Michelle, and when I say inspired I mean she legit gave me the recipe.   She is honestly a DON when it comes to cooking. Every time I go to her house she makes these unbelievable meals, that always have me going up for seconds if not thirds.  This is one of those “can’t get enough of it” meals. 

Finding Joy

Rachel and Dave Hollis and their company at Hollis Co, have been super aware of and on top of “finding your joy” and making “joy lists” and I am ALL about that. Obviously. And I think that right now, it is more important than ever, for ALL of us to jump in on that bandwagon and be on a constant quest to find joy. 

Adding Value During Tough Times

During this uncertain time in our lives, it has been a difficult time to move forward. For me, it’s almost like we are all in this weird limbo of standstill. We are moving forward, but not really. Many of our decisions and next steps are going to be based on how this virus evolves and reacts, but none of us know what that will look like or how long it will be.  We are in very unchartered waters, with no real idea of where north is or where our oars are. 

All of the uncertainty has people and companies less eager to buy or try something new. You don’t want to plan too far ahead, because you don’t know when things are going to happen or how things will change. Resulting in feeling stuck, or on pause until further notice.

For many us, me especially, this can be pretty difficult. How can we continue to move the needle forward in business, or keep working towards that goal, sale, whatever, if we don’t even know what next week will look like?

As soon as I felt listless and a little lost, I knew I had to find some kind of solution so I could keep moving forward. At that time, I had these recurring thoughts of:

“How can I continue to add value today?”  

“How can I continue to make a difference and move forward?”

“How can I show up for my team, my managers, and my candidates at this time?”  

I believe that we can continue to move forward, to trudge through this fog of unknown by slowing down for a minute, calming down, and then focusing on how we can add value to our customers, clients, colleagues, friends, and communities in these times of need.