And now, a few words from General Patton -

"Go forward until the last round is fired and the last drop of gas is expended... then go forward on foot!"

"The test of success is not what you do when you're on top. Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom."

"Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory."

"If everyone is thinking alike, someone isn't thinking."

"If a man does his best, what else is there?"

I bring these words forth today for 2 reasons. 1) They show a lot of leadership and 2) I had a really, really crappy day and I feel like being inspired.

Let's just stick with number 1 for a bit shall we? I think I've got the leadership thing under control again for a while. I keep trying to make it more complicated than it really is, and when I do that, I find myself expending a lot more energy than I really have to. It's a little like religion in that respect. When someone asked Jesus what they must do to enter the kingdom of heaven, he told them 2 things: 1) Love God with everything they had, and 2) Love their neighbor as themselves.

Leadership likewise has only a couple of rules (I may have mused on this before, but I've been writing this blog for over a year now, and I can't remember if I've shared this or not yet. If so, too bad, you're getting it again). 1) Never ask someone to do something that you're not willing to do yourself. And the 2nd rule is like unto it: 2) From time to time, prove it!

If I would just stick to this I would be fine. But I keep trying to make things more complicated, and figure out people's motivations so that I can find ways to motivate them better. I'm also terrible at consistently applying the carrot and stick when I should, but I'm making a drastic change in this regard which will probably come as quite a surprise to my co-workers (sorry folks, but enough is enough).

I would also like to comment on one other drastic similarity to leadership and religion. They are both something that are done as a way of life. Neither can just be turned off and on like a switch. You can't just be religious on the weekends or a solid leader during the week. These things become bound up in who and what you are, and what you do will reflect that. And being bound so closely to people's nature, these are notoriously hard to change (either for better or worse). Possible, but very very difficult, and is usually only successful when done for the right reasons (personal growth or absolute necessity).

Well, now that we've gotten that off my chest, who wants to hear about my crappy day? I'm tired and in the mood to whine, to break out the cheese.

We decided this weekend would be a good time to stop breast-feeding the child who will be turning 2 years old in February. We just don't want a kid who can go around talking to people to walk up and say, "Hey mom, whip it out please, I'm thirsty". Not our style. This process involves a lot of kicking and screaming and very little sleep. It especially involves a lot of parenting, and the parent who usually does NOT do the breastfeeding gets to be up front and personal letting the boy know that it's time for a glass of milk, or time to sleep. That's all you're gonna get.

So, on top of that, I had some serious catching up to do at work today. I discovered I'm further behind than I thought, and there's even more paperwork waiting for me when I get there tomorrow. During my efforts to at least make a dent and complete 2 of the 3 tasks I set for myself today, the power went out in my office. I was in the home stretch of completing the next schedule, and lost the whole dang thing, about 2 hours of work. Blah. I was so frustrated that I literally almost cried, but instead I went home.

Later I had to do a little dog-sitting for some friends that are out-of-town. Not a big deal. I put my sons in the car and had them ready to roll, when I suddenly couldn't find my stupid car keys. Now we are in the habit of keeping spares for just such an emergency. But my regular truck is in my parents yard waiting for the weekend's classifieds to come out saying "700 dollars or best offer for a good truck that needs engine work". I'm currently borrowing my mother's car, which means I have only 1 set of keys. Searching high and low for these stupid keys with my sons already loaded up in the car did not make me happy. Eventually, I just had to bring the boys back in the house and wait for Brandi to get home from work before heading out to the dogs (I found the keys 3 hours later). Naturally, when I got to the house, the dogs had left a little present on the floor in front of the door that lets them out to the yard. Fun.

So now I'm further behind at work despite putting in 4 free hours of effort that I won't get paid for, and my hands smell a bit like dog poop. Wonderful. But now that I've shared this with the world, I feel a little better. I'm going to re-read my Patton quotes and hope to keep them in mind when taking on the rest of the week. In the meantime, you might want to turn your sound down. I'm not sure what kind of music I'm about to pick to go along with this update.