Monday, January 2, 2012

This Just In: Monday Mantras

mantra is a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that is considered capable of "creating transformation".

When you're having a hard moment, day, or week, and need something to pick you up or to remind you of the good things in life, it helps to have something positive, enlightening, maybe even something funny, to focus on. This is why I'm starting Monday Mantras.

Every Monday I will post a new thought, idea, or focus for that week. When you need a breather from life or when you're about to jump over the conference table and strangle your co-worker, remember the mantra.

Mantra's are designed to be spoken out loud, therefore giving them more power, more oomph. You don't have to do that. You don't even have to chant it or meditate on it or anything, unless of course you want to. I see this simply as a weekly tool, a reminder, an idea to draw your attention to when it wants to go somewhere else, somewhere less helpful. It's something to keep us all tethered together during the more crazy moments in life.

For a very in-depth look into Mantras, click here.

To start the year out, here is your very first focus point for the week.


Monday Mantra: Be Human

It's never too late...

To be human.

Too often we seek perfection.
And despair when we don't find it.
There is glory in all facets of humanity.
In our struggles.
Our achievements.
Our failures.
Our imperfections.
Perfection can be an aim.
But it's not a pleasant state for a human.

 - Taken from It's Never Too Late by Patrick Lindsay


When I was a senior in high school I had 3.5 jobs. One was at Subway, one was at Safeway, one was at a golf club, and one was at a bank. I was crazy determined to grow up and get on with life, what can I say? During this time I was also much, much more shy than I am now and I had a tenacity for blushing the color of a vine ripened tomato at pretty much anything. People knew this. People loved this. It was no bueno for me.

At Safeway I was the deli girl. The best part of the job, aside from the amazing hair net? Having to get up at 4:30 in the morning for the opening shift. At this point in my life I didn't even know that time of day existed. 

One morning I was ridiculously sleepy. Normally the front door is open just enough for those of us with the early shift. I see the open door ahead of me, walk up to it and...WHAM! I do an entire body slam into it because on this particular day, it was not open. I was apparently hallucinating. Then, I stumble a few steps back, point at the door, and yell at it like it's the doors fault for not being open. I'm so mad/embarrassed that I refuse to go through that door and pick another one instead. Clearly it was the door's fault.

I didn't tell anyone at work that day, but I did mention it to my friend at the bank, whose husband just so happened to be the manager of Safeway. Word to the wise: Small town, talk travels fast normally, but when you work with the husband at one place and the wife at another, it's bound to get around even faster. Dummy. I know.

The next time I'm headed into work I get called in to the managers office. I freak out silently on the inside. Did I slice the turkey wrong? Is my hair net on backwards? Oh no, oh no, oh no.

My manager sits me down. He proceeds to tell me that he has something to show me and that he needs an explanation. I have no idea what it going on at this point. He turns on the TV in his office and there I am, staring at myself walking into the glass doors. I had totally forgotten about the security cameras catching our every move. He goes through the whole thing, rewinds it, pauses it, replays it, and laughs his head off. His favorite part? When I yelled at the door. To see myself point and flail my hands at it while cursing it out was a little overboard. Just a tad.

As I'm slowly dying of embarrassment, thinking it couldn't get worse, he tells me everyone else saw it.

Every single Safeway employee. At the meeting that I didn't attend. And that it's going to make a reappearance at the Christmas party.

To this day, when I go back home, I avoid Safeway as much as I possibly can. I just know that glass door remembers me and is waiting for round two.


Have you ever had a moment that was less than perfect, that brought you back to just being human?
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