Outside my comfort zone

Today I shall write about two interconnected stories of Doing Something.  Specifically about Doing Something at my work.

Story #1:

Shortly after I started working at my current place of employment, I was approached by several people in my work area if I would be interested in chairing the District's Wellness Subcommittee.  The last chair had retired quite some time ago, and no one else wanted to take on the responsibility. 

I have normally not been the type to take on a leadership role voluntarily; it is too much of putting myself out there and that concept has scared (and still does to an extent) me.  After couple weeks of deliberation, I decided that volunteering to chair this committee would be Doing Something to become less of an introvert.  I know that when I am in a leadership position, I take control and do whatever is necessary.  It's the volunteering to take on that role that is a stretch for me.

And I am glad that I did.  I feel like I can do a lot of good, both for my employer and for the people I work with. I have been told by a lot of management that they are glad I took on this role and that it is apparent that I am a good leader.  I feel I am definitely Doing Something.

Story #2:

Flash forward to last week.  One of my co-workers brought to my attention that the Hermantown Chamber of Commerce was having a luncheon to discuss a proposed health and wellness center.  Perfect opportunity for the Chair of the Wellness Subcommittee to get out there and find out some of the initiatives that are going on in the community, and what possible role my work could play in this venture.  Again, Doing Something.

But when signing up for this thing I didn't really consider what exactly a Chamber of Commerce Luncheon entailed.  It is a bunch of high-powered business types that are there to network and advance their careers.  Big talkers.  Not engineering types that have a passion for wellness and are, in their nature, introverts.

When I got there, I signed in and walked into the meeting room.  All these people in power suits were already huddled in small groups, having conversations about who knows what.  I felt like I didn't belong.  I felt like I should crawl into a hole where no one would see me.  But I didn't.  I found a spot at a table, pulled out my work phone to check my email.  Probably looked pretty uncomfortable.  Luckily, some nice ladies came over to talk to me, and we had a nice conversation about why I was there, and what I was trying to do with the wellness program at my work.  It was alright.

But then the luncheon started.  And the person in charge said (direct quote) "It's been a while since we've done this, and I see some new faces in the crowd.  Why don't we go around and introduce ourselves?" I thought I was going to die.  And when it came to me, I stood up, and said my name and where I worked; I'm pretty sure my voice cracked a little.  I was mortified.

So, yeah... today's adventure in putting myself out there, of Doing Something that is out of my norm, was not a total success.  But at least I tried.  And I got a lot of good information too.

Today's Run

It was COLD today!  Definitely didn't get above 0F, not even close.  But I went to running group, and in the end it was alright.  Today's workout was a 5 minute warmup, followed by 15 minutes brisk running, 3 minutes jogging, 15 minutes brisk running, and a cool down (I did 3 minutes for a cool down since I was already a meat popsicle at this point).  One of the bad things about running in this extreme cold is that, per the owner's manual, I can't plug in my Garmin if the battery is under 40F, so I can't look to see if I really picked up the pace on the brisk parts when I write these posts the same night.  Maybe I'll do an update... Anyway, tonight I ran 4.54 miles in 41:00, for an average pace of 9:01.  I'm pretty sure my warmup, cool down and jogging were above 9:30, which means my brisk wasn't too shabby.  But I'll find out for sure when I download the data.