Surround Sound

What are you listening to right now? Is it music? The TV? Your family? The voices in your head? It makes sense to listen to things that are in line with what you want to achieve. I have all kinds of music on my ipod. I have experimented and I have found that listening to Rage Against The Machine before I meet with a customer is not a good idea. I just spent the week at a sales meeting with 60 reps from all over the country. I was amazed at the level of negativity. I immediately figured out who I didn't want to sit with at dinner and who to avoid during breaks. Sadly, the majority of them are on my team. The beauty of my job is that I work out of my house and I don't have to go into a building with these people everyday. I deal with them on the phone (love me some caller i.d.) It made me think about the choices I make (and can make) with what and who I surround myself with on a day to day basis. I am not talking about a friend going through crisis. I am talking about people that are constantly negative and drain the life blood out of you. My shrink says "if you want to be successful, you surround yourself with successful people. The same goes for being calm. If you want to be calm, surround yourself with calm people." It makes perfect sense. 

After I told my niece about the SOB story she said, "You really need to hang out with better quality people." I laughed, but there was a lot of truth to that observation.

I can make a choice with music--right now I'm listening to my favorite, Aimee Mann. TV--I have only watched CBS News Sunday Morning today. That is one of the only news shows I watch. I prefer to read the news. I don't watch reality TV (except Top Chef). I have enough reality in my own life. Family--I live alone and I am close with Sulie and my niece, Jackie. I have chosen to not have contact with my older sister (you all didn't even know I had an older sister). The last thing is the voices in my head. I'm not talking about the kind that land you in a rubber room. I am taking about the tapes that play over and over in your head. That subject requires a new paragraph...

The tapes in my head. I am confident you all do it too. I've never met anyone that didn't do it. One of the twins loved to talk about it. He once told me that he would have long scenarios of telling people off (in his head) after he was nice to them. He was the smiley, outgoing twin that everyone loved to be around. I encouraged him to be himself and let people know what he was really thinking. I recently emailed with Annie. She told me that this twin told John that he didn't want to play football at LSU (the scouts started to come to see him in his sophomore year in high school). He told his father (the football crazed man that attended college on a football scholarship) that he didn't like getting hit all the time and did not want to destroy his body before he was 25. I was so proud of him! Okay, that was a total tangent. This is what a day of tapes in my head can sound like...

Wake up. Shit, I should have gotten up earlier so I could get on elliptical. I'll do it tonight. Get in shower. Think about how I dread the meeting I have at 0900. Put on makeup. Look in the drawer and berate myself for all the money I've spent on various eyeshadows, lotions and blush. Blow my hair dry and curse the fact that I am 100% grey and I have to get my roots done every 2.5 weeks to not look 80 years old. Stand and look into my closet deciding what to wear. Think I hate my clothes and I have nothing to wear (yet my closet is bulging). Put on clothes and look at outfit in mirror. Again curse myself for not doing more cardio as I look at my backview. Get in car and pull out on to Dale Mabry. Dodge cars right and left. Mutter "asshole" under my breath. This is all before I meet with my first customer! 

Rewrite.  Wake up. Think how great it is that I wake up on my own and the alarm clock is just a back up. I have gotten up with plenty of time to do 30 minutes on the elliptical. Get in shower with positive thoughts about my 0900 meeting. Open my makeup drawer and marvel at all the choices I have in eyeshadows. Blow my hair dry and love the fact that I am healthy. Open my closet and marvel at all the choices. Admire my sassy outfit in the full length mirror without turning around. Get in car and take Mac Dill instead...