Moments with Mel have been farther and father in between lately with the shift that I have noticed come in the workplace. Mel has given me space to grow and with that time, I have made a process that works for me. It’s been a great learning experience these last few months as Mel marked her path as the new head of a big project. She has changed the design and brought an old document into a new era of color. While she worked on that big project all summer, she gave me time to work on myself as an individual and find my path in my own work place and head space. Sadly, that came with less check in times and moments with Mel.
I have found myself forging new paths lately, and with that came the removal of myself from interspace when I am not at the office. It’s been a blessing in disguise as I learned to just live in the now. With that lesson, I learned to better myself in both the workplace and in my personal life.
Which brings me to this edition of Moments with Mel. Mel and I had a wonderful talk and discussion about the new process that will be coming into the office, but also about the squashing of office antics. There are behavioral modifications that need to be made in the work place we currently reside, and while I enjoy a strong female dominance in the work place, I have come to the understanding that not all women know how to shut off “high school” and move into adulthood, at least, if they do in their mid to late 20’s, its not showing so well.
I had a conversation recently about the importance of listening. How listening is more than just hearing words, but understanding them, being present in the process of listening and interacting. We all hear things, everyday we hear noise, chatter, conversations, and the world around us, but how often do we just listen to listen and not absorb what we are hearing? How often have you been physically present in a conversation, but your mind has been elsewhere. When someone brought this up, it made me think, maybe this is why I don’t remember a lot of conversations, maybe its because my head has been elsewhere. I am pretty sure its because my head was elsewhere. I am famous for my over thinking and over analyzing of the world around me, and its because of that lovely trait that I need to learn to be present in the listening process, instead of running off with my thoughts.
I am apparently blossoming and growing and have been since I started my mentorship under Mel. She has helped me grow and blossom just by being an example, by sharing in the experience and journey of my growth and maturity, and by sharing her knowledge and wisdom. My most recent session with Mel highlighted that fact, that I was indeed blossoming and growing and showing signs of growth. Mel is great with checking me, which I am grateful for, because I guess I have run kind of wild while Mel was away this summer forging her new blaze of glory, and it was time I received the reality check that I needed, and the reminder that yep, I am still young, impressionable, and sometimes can lapse into trusting and lightheartedness that may not be quite appropriate for where I want to grow in life.
While reminding me to keep conscious about my booming voice that carries, Mel opened up about how glad she was to be able to see me grow, and to be able to hear positive reviews about my work while she was away. Mel’s approach to everything has always been with gentle but firm reinforcement, and by leading through example. It is one thing that has taught me to trust and build a relationship with her. Knowing that I can go to her, and trust that she has my back has been a great part of this growth process. She has given me so much room to grow and has given me such powerful perspective altering advice, its hard not to take her reinforcements and gentle but firm reminders of how to check my behavioral moments as her gentle molding of me into the future leader of the free world (joking).
My moment with Mel this time brought me to a positive place, but also was a gentle reminder of how I am not quite the grown up I think I am, but that I am getting there, one day, one week, one month at a time. Growth has come upon us, and while I expected myself to be some crazy awesome grown up by the time I was this age, the reality might be that our perception of what a grown up should be, shouldn’t come with restrictions and goals bound by age, but instead, should be markers along a path that we are all forging in our own time.
The Jayne Project 