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9/21: A Day of Traveling

Today is what I will call a representative day of being a Sr. Manager. Keep in mind that I am being measured on 2 things: 1.) How much I sell (with a team); and 2.) How many people I manage on a billable engagement.

Those two things drive my priorities as it pertains to work. So that means I go where there is an opportunity, sacrificing any personal or professional plans (up to a point), that I have in place. At the end of the day, I have to pay my bills and support a family. That's just life.

Today, I cut my weekend with my wife in NYC short by getting on a plane out of La Guardia at 10 AM. Despite the intent of working, I instead slept until we landed in Dallas. At that point, American switched gates on us 4 times as we encountered a 3 hour delay for maintenance. For those of you that travel, 'maintenance' is one of THE worst reasons of all because you have no idea what that means except that it will be the longest delay you can experience.

Upon arriving in San Diego, I head right into a meeting with the presentation team that last 3 hours straight with dinner mixed in. The upside is that I am in San Diego and the presentation team is a good group of folks. It's at this point that I have lost all track of time whatsover because I am now on the West Coast.

Tomorrow is the big day where I get to prove that a client buys people. I need to be able to make a connection or that's the end of it.

The bottom line of this entry is this: Meeting or exceeding your metrics drive priorities. Performance is always the point. (I stole that from Marcus Buckingham). You make sacrifices to stay on par or exceed expectations. Understand and adjust to those sacrifices as you go through life. When it gets to a point in your gut where those sacrifices don't feel right, reevaluate your priorities and decide which direction you want to take.

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