Dear Negative Ego re: {Patience}

Last week I was tested on how much patience I had when dealing with the administration staff of a Children's Gymnastics school.

I was merely trying to book for a trial class for my daughter for Sat. And so the Monday before that I called the number given. The man who picked up said he would call me back in the afternoon when he had access to the computer. I was fine with that.

No phone call. Wednesday comes, I decided to call again. This time a lady picked up the phone and she tells me that she is not an admin staff and so cannot access the system but said she will leave a message for someone to call me back the next day.

Thursday comes. No phone call. So I called them in the afternoon and spoke to the same man who had no memory of us speaking on Monday and he said he would call me back when he had access to the system. Immediately I stopped him from hanging up by saying, "I will call you tomorrow if you give me a time". He hesitated and said "maybe it is better if I will call you", but I insisted and said, "no it is better I call you, give me a time". So he said to call him at 11am the next day and he was very polite about it.

[Reader, are you running out of patience yet reading this? lol!]

So Friday 11am comes. I call him. No answer. I try again in a few minutes, I got an engaged tone.

By this time, you negative ego was soooo ready to jump into the party! In that split second, you ran a judgmental thought through my mind, "What kind of a business are they running? This is Singapore, and not some third world country!" (no offense to people living in these countries, negative ego was really going for it!)

Immediately, I seized your negative ego thought as if I could literally grasp it by its neck and threw it out! And said to you, "Oh no, you don't. Not now! I've been practicing enough patience so far and I am not going to let you stop me from remaining even minded. Out you go!"

So I made that phone call again at 11.30am, the man answered, got the information I needed and got my daughter registered for Saturday.

[Sasha has since attended the trail class and loved it and will continue to do the class for the entire term. Thank you God for the lesson on patience!]

Bye negative ego.....

Dear Negative Ego re: more busy-ness

And so the busy-ness has not stopped, in fact things have increased in tempo in the last 10 days. Because of the untimely move of the office together with the pre-planned (more than 6 months ago) vacation which we are about to take tomorrow, it is now a tsunami of things to do! LOL! And boy, do I see you sneaking in with every opportunity to introduce thoughts and feelings of stress. I am putting out the fires now, but since today is the day where everything it coming together before I go, I know you will be there trying to steer me away from course.

In adjusting budgets for the move and renovation of the new office, I know you will try to sneak in thoughts of lack and say we don't have enough even when we do. So don't even try.

In managing contractors while I am away on vacation, I know you will try to sneak in to say they will do things wrongly if I am not here to supervise them. Well, I am going to have a last meeting with the contractor today and have an easy plan to work with them and I trust the contractor, so negative ego your attempts will be futile.

In managing people who want their sessions yesterday, I just have to explain the situation and hope they will understand. Negative ego, I know you will try to pull me off centre with this one. But I am staying rooted here, I am not going to go buy into your game. I always do my best ad even if situations are beyond my control, I am leaving it in the hands of God.

Negative ego, I know you've been trying to stop me from going on this vacation by saying that when I come back there's going to be more work, so is it worth going? You also say I should bring my laptop to try to sneak in some work because my email inbox is going to be overloaded by the time I get back. But I am not going to give in to you. If it is overloaded, so be it. I will just deal with one thing at a time and prioritise my time, things that are not urgent can always wait because I am going on my vacation whether you like it or not! :)

Dear Negative ego re: [patience]

This must be a season of giving as well as repetitions :-)

I was at the supermarket but I didn't bring my shopping bag as it was an unplanned trip to buy some grocery. I went to the cashier and told her to put everything in one plastic bag. She looked at me as if she understood but proceeded to put my things into two bags, so I repeated my request politely again thinking she didn't hear me the first time. She looked at me again, and then continued to put the things into two bags! At this time, negative ego, you were all ready to pounce in. But I remained centred and refused to engage with you in any way. And I looked and smiled at the cashier and said one more time, please put everything in one bag, gesturing 'one bag' at the same time. Then she finally understood me!

You, negative ego again tried to jump in by saying judgmentally, if she didn't understand why didn't she ask! I brushed you off not wanting to give you any more energy than you deserve.

This may be a season of giving, but I am not giving my power away to you negative ego!