WORTHY: 31 days of 5-minute free writes

I have an email that I need to write for work today that I’ve been dragging my feet on. At the beginning, I just didn’t have time because it was a busy week. Now it’s Sunday and that email is the only “big” thing left on my to-do list.

I worked in a quasi-governmental organization for almost 20 years (structurally, it functioned like a nonprofit). Now I work for a for-profit and have in one form or another for five years.

Something both experiences have in common is the fact that many efforts to change die.

That’s not to cast aspersions on either place, both of which I loved/love and hopefully made/am making a contribution to.

Sometimes, though, you really just wonder if whatever issue you’re pouring time and energy into is worthy of that time and energy.

That said, after all of these years in the workforce, I still lean toward optimism.

In this case, I need to recap a meeting I had with an individual. There were things the person shared that require (if I want change) me to “bark up that tree” and I’m already tired thinking about how incremental progress is when someone’s mind needs to be changed.

This reminds me of a time we had an organizational consultant at Healthy Kids. We were split into groups for an activity. Whatever the activity was, I had suggested an answer to a question. No one bought into it. Later on, it became apparent that my answer had been right. She said to me, “You had the right answer. You didn’t fight for it.”

Remember that the next time your gut says, “You were right.” You may need to keep barking.

The 31-day writing challenge is a series of 5-minute free writes throughout the month of October. Please forgive any spelling/grammatical errors. I’m trying to (for once) be true to the challenge’s purest form.

Paula Kiger

Wife of one, Mom of two, Friend of many. My pronouns are she/her/hers.