A friend of mine bought me a daily calendar for Christmas. It’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People calendar. I felt what they were saying on January 16^th and 19^th, so I decided to share.

16th

The “inside-out” approach to personal and interpersonal effectiveness means to start first with self; even more fundamentally, to start with the most inside part of self – with your paradigms, your character, and your motives. The inside-out approach says that private victories precede public victories, that making and keeping promises to ourselves precedes making and keeping promises to others.  It says it is futile to put personality ahead of character, to try to improve relationships with others before improving ourselves.

Inside-out is a process – a continuing process of renewal based on the natural laws that govern human growth and progress. It’s an upward spiral of growth that leads to progressively higher forms of responsible independence and effective interdependence.

19^th

Dependence is the paradigm of you – you take care of me, you come through for me; you didn’t come through; I blame you for the results.

Independence is the paradigm of I – I can do it; I am responsible; I am self-reliant; I can choose.

Interdependence is the paradigm of we – we can do it; we can cooperate; we can combine our talents and abilities and create something greater together.

Dependent people need others to get what they want. Independent people can get what they want through their own effort. Interdependent people combine their own efforts with the efforts of others to achieve their greatest success.

I am working to become more interdependent…especially in my relationship with my fiancé. I know that it takes the two of us working together to make this work. Anything worth having is worth working for. If it’s not worth working for, then let it go!

Sitting at work waiting for the office Christmas party to start. They had us come in at 8 only to sit around waiting until the board meeting is over. I could be home in the bed with my baby. " class="wp-smiley"> The party won’t start until 12 noon, so until then, I am left to my own devices.

The company catered the Christmas party. I work for the Board of Elections and we FINALLY put the November 4th election to bed after handling over 270,000 paper ballots. We had 2 recounts and 2 audits. It has been a long, hard road. Working 7 days a week, 18 and 19 hours a day since August. We are all so glad it’s finally over. I am taking Thursday and Friday off so that I can finish packing up my apartment. I start my real vacation next Tuesday and won’t return until after the New Year starts. I need a break. " class="wp-smiley">

As I said, they catered the Christmas party. They ordered a ham from Honeybaked Ham. They did the same last year, and the ham was cold. I mean, straight out of the refrigerator cold. I am sorry, but I do not roll with cold ham. I took a bite and my first thought was, “What the hell?” LOL So, this year I will pop mine in the toaster oven that we have in the break room.

It’s almost time for me to get a new phone. I am torn between two phones.

This phone is so sweet...

I think I am leaning toward the iphone because the service plan is better. I love the sleek looking of the iphone as well, but the clicking noise of the Storm is somehow throwing a monkey wrench into my plans. If any of you have either of these phones, please contact me with your pros and cons.

Well, I am going to go to my desk and read my book. It’s starting to get really good. I am reading Someone to Catch My Drift by Jacqueline Powell.