I have noticed that when I work those longer hours, I myself become more prone to getting sick, and when I do I get hit hard. Where the normal person probably can get over a cold in a few days, it can take a week for me to get better. Sickness and illness seem to come hand-in-hand with the increased workload and stress that comes with it. Over time it strips your immune system and when you get a cold, where a normal person can fight it off, you just succumb to it. It is like your body is making you rest by getting you sick. And sick time is the worst way to use your Paid Time Off (PTO).

Another one is friendships and relationships. I have found as my workload fluctuates, my quality of friendships fluctuates too. We start to make decisions on what we can and cannot do. And sometimes the friends or significant other takes a backseat to work. This is not fair to them, and certainly not to you. The worst case scenario is that because you are so absent from your friends they start to drift away, and they call or email less, because you either don’t reply in a timely manner or at all. In the case of the significant other you start to have fights or arguments and as with friends they too start to drift away or prepare themselves to end the relationship. Either way, if you work too hard, you risk losing your friends and your significant other.

So what is the solution? I think the solution is different for everyone, but one suggestion is to evaluate your current situation and decide what you can do to make it better. A second suggestion is communication, not just with your friends and significant other, but with your boss as well. You need to make time for them, as well as for yourself. A third suggestion, is learning how to manage expectations for everyone. If you have to really work, then if you communicate often and in timely, these types of situations will at least be less impactful if you are managing everyones expectations. In the end, I think the key is communication and sometimes learning to say no. Ultimately this is still a personal choice, but if unchecked, you could end up losing a lot.

On that note, I have to get ready to go into the office today.

This can apply to almost anything, and it can oftentimes be an unfair PERCEPTION. For example, I have a friend who among my circle of friends is perceived to be a Gossip Queen. She got caught gossiping on three different occasions and has since been dubbed the Gossip Queen. Regardless if she never gossips again, it doesn’t matter, because she going to be the Gossip Queen for a while. Even if she never gossips for a year, people will always say “I don’t trust her, she will tell everyone my business,” even if it is untrue. Sadly, her REALITY is that people’s PERCEPTIONS are she is a Gossip Queen. Even, if this is not in fact her nature, that was her REALITY. I think most of you can relate to this, because you all know someone who has been branded a Gossip Queen.

You can change how people perceive you, but it often a painful and long process. I myself have realized on numerous occasions that how people perceive me is my REALITY. In fact recently, I learned that someone’s PERCEPTIONS became my REALITY to the point that it fractured our friendship. The question is, if you lose a friend…how do you change their PERCEPTIONS, and even I don’t have a solution for that one. I am sure there are many PERCEPTIONS of me out there among different circles of friends, and all of them are my REALITY. The funny thing is that you often find out that you could have conflicting PERCEPTIONS depending on whether you are looking at your work, your friends, your spouse/significant other, etc.

On that note, I better get ready for work so I am not late today…again…