Well, I survived my first 6 day work
week (week 3 of the job). Part of me thinks if I hadn't been lucky
that first day /week in getting off on the right foot, things might
not have continued to go as well as they've been going. So that's
good. Yesterday was actually the busiest day up to this point. There
was a brief period of overwhelm (when a bunch of things get piled on
you at once), but it's kind of good when you're kept on your toes.
For the higher level staff, I could tell there was stress going on
with other high-level processes, and at one point one of our websites
was down. But everyone has seemed to be keeping a level head so far.
I hope it remains so. From what they've said, it gets busier as the
annual election period is well underway (like November). I think our
working Saturday (yesterday) was due to some system issues and
quality control that needed to be taken care of so things are able to
run more smoothly when the rubber meets the road. So we'll see what
happens. It's cool they let us have tomorrow off so we still have a
2-day weekend. I don't know if that will always be the case. But I'll
take what I can when I can.
Last Saturday I did the lesson
preparation for today's wellcoaches class (#5). That was made
possible because last Sunday (lesson #4) didn't have any prep. It was
just a practice session. So I took the opportunity to get ahead for
today. My plan is to do the prep for next Sunday (#6) tomorrow since
I have the day off. Whether I'll work next Saturday or not, I don't
know. I'm gonna have to take things week by week. I know I mentioned
a little about the content of the classes in my last post. And like I
said in this post, we did some practice last week with reflections
and open-ended inquiries. When practicing, there often seems to be 2
tracks your mind has to juggle. One is obviously listening to the
client and responding and being present in the moment. And the other
is making sure that your responses are in line with the processes
you're being taught. The best thing is when whatever comes naturally
to you is already in line with what's being taught. But it doesn't
always happen that way (as much as you might think it would). I guess
in time the things might merge a little easier. But overall, the
concepts we're learning DO seem natural and smart to me. Don't advise
people. Let them listen to themselves, let them do the work. When
they know someone is simply listening and providing an outlet, things
will come to the surface. And when people step back and sit with
silence for a while, it can be effective because it's probably a rare
thing to have silence in life.
Other things we covered were self-care
and surveys of our signature strengths. My top 5 were: love of
learning, self-regulation (which our instructor said was the least
common one among people in our country), honesty, judgment (thinking
things through, not jumping to conclusions, having the ability to
change your mind), and appreciation of beauty and excellence.
Tonight's lesson is about motivational interviewing which entails
expressing empathy, developing discrepancy, rolling with resistance,
and supporting self-efficacy. Within the empathy facet is non-violent
communication which entails making observations instead of
evaluations, expressing feelings instead of thoughts, identifying
needs instead of strategies, and making requests instead of demands.
So I'm basically just reiterating my textbook here, lol. Oh well. Now
I guess I'll enjoy the rest of my Sunday :)
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